Atletico Madrid have moved quickly to deter Chelsea’s reported interest in a number of their stars by attempting to renegotiate the contracts of Antoine Griezmann and Koke.
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The La Liga side are hoping to raise the duo’s respective release clauses to nearly £100 million, a massive increase from their current level at around £43 million according to The Guardian.
Chelsea have a long-standing interest in Koke, whilst they enjoy an unexpected benefit in the chase for Griezmann now that super-agent Jorge Mendes is working in an ‘advisory’ capacity for the Frenchman.
The infamous Portuguese has a close relationship with the Blues and Jose Mourinho particularly who, along with Diego Costa, is one of his clients.
Griezmann only joined Atletico last summer – and on a six-year deal – but his impact was underestimated by the club’s hierarchy who set his buy-out amount so low that a club as lucrative as Chelsea could easily match.
And to make maters worse for the Vicente Calderon outfit, The Guardian claim Griezmann himself is open to the idea of making the switch to the Premier League and intends to at least find out how interested Chelsea are in signing him before deciding on his future.
Griezmann is just one of several targets for the Blues this summer with Barcelona’s Pedro, another Atletico man Tony Alderweireld, and Morgan Schneiderlin of Southampton all on Mourinho’s radar.
The Blues will also look to negate any potential exit of Petr Cech by signing a replacement back-up keeper and have Rob Green, Asmir Begovic and Getafe stopper Vicente Guaita on their shortlist.
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