Divining a player’s future from their involvement in the promotional activity for the 2017/18 kits, is very much the vogue this summer. Thomas Lemar, 21, omitted from Monaco’s away strip launch, was deemed to be on his way to Arsenal while the Gunners were set to keep Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez for the opposite reason.
Andrea Belotti, Torino’s in-demand 23-year-old striker, was left out of Il Toro’s 2017/18 kit launch promotional material, claims the Daily Mail, which has alerted both Chelsea and AC Milan about his availability.
The two former European club champions are set to slug it out over the young striker, nicknamed the Rooster. While Chelsea hold the prize of playing in the Premier League for the defending champions and a side which is already among the favourites for the 2017/18 crown, Milan has an aura and respect in Italy, enough to entice Leonardo Bonucci to join recently from Juventus.
Chelsea though, have Antonio Conte, the widely respected Italian coach in charge. His stock in his homeland is such that there are constant rumours of him returning to Serie A at any little hiccup along the way.
The Blues are desperate to land a striker with Diego Costa becoming an increasingly marginalised figure as he waits to resolve his future with Atletico Madrid. Without the Spanish international, the Chelsea front line is very sparsely populated and certainly lacking the firepower to challenge for the Premier League title or win the Champions League.
With very deep pockets to put their hands into, Chelsea would most likely win any bidding war over the striker. However, Milan’s new Chinese owners are no strangers to spending big or backing head coach Vincenzo Montella when it comes to transfers.