Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham has agreed to join Roma in a deal worth €40 million (£34 million).
Abraham, who was an unused substitute in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, will fly to Italy tomorrow to have his medical around lunchtime.
As reported by The Athletic earlier this week, Roma’s general manager Tiago Pinto flew to London to help convince Abraham to join them. He met with the forward, his father and Abraham’s agent.
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Roma’s manager, former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, has also been speaking to the England international on the phone to convince him to come.
It is understood the 23-year-old, who has barely played for Chelsea since Thomas Tuchel took over as manager in January, had been telling Chelsea team-mates that he wanted to join Arsenal. However, no offer was forthcoming.
Roma will pay the fee in installments over the length of Abraham’s contract. He is being paid a salary of €6 million-a-year net — which is considerably more than the £70,000-a-week he is on at Chelsea.
Sources have told The Athletic that Chelsea have inserted a buy-back option as part of the deal. But it can only be triggered after two seasons and is worth a sizeable €80 million (£68 million).
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Why have Chelsea let him go?
This has been a long time coming and both parties have been preparing to go their separate ways.
With Abraham not willing to discuss a contract extension for some time now, Chelsea were always going to listen to offers for the striker. He had two years left on his current deal and the club did not want to risk missing out on a sizeable transfer fee.
Meanwhile, coach Thomas Tuchel clearly didn’t see Abraham as part of his first-team plans. Abraham, who finished the season joint top scorer on 12 goals, played just 230 minutes after Tuchel took over as manager in January.
Tuchel wanted a top center-forward to be signed this summer and the club secured the £97.5 million acquisition of Romelu Lukaku last week.
What will he bring to Roma?
Abraham is still developing as a frontman but has great potential, as he has shown in the past two years as a Chelsea player.
He is quick, can hold the ball up and can find the back of the net as his record of 30 goals in 82 appearances demonstrates. That's from only 51 starts.
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There is still a question mark over how clinical he can be, with an accusation that he can miss too many chances, something that was seen during pre-season.
However, this is something that can be clearly improved upon while working under a manager like Mourinho, who has got the best out of many top strikers throughout his career.
Why did Mourinho want Abraham?
With Roma's captain and talismanic goalscorer Edin Dzeko replacing Romelu Lukaku at Inter, Mourinho needed another striker to complement summer signing Eldor Shomurodov and Borja Mayoral.
Roma's general manager Tiago Pinto has been in London for four days to seal the deal. Time was of the essence with Roma due to kick off their Conference League campaign against Trabzonspor this week and their season opener in Serie A against Fiorentina also nearing on the horizon.
Pinto and Mourinho's charm offensive consisted of going all-in on Abraham who was their absolute first choice. No other alternatives were given serious consideration.
(Photo: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Abraham leaving Stamford Bridge
Abraham’s case is packed. #CFC pic.twitter.com/UXdQ2cMj0Y
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) August 14, 2021