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Chelsea are not willing to pay the £30 million need to make the loan of midfielder Saúl Ňiguez into a permanent deal.
The midfielder joined Chelsea on from Atlético Madrid at the start of the season but, although the Spanish club wanted to include an obligation to buy into the deal, this was negotiated down to an option in the end.
Since he has been in West London, the Spanish international has struggled to cope with the pace of the Premier League, and there were some suggestions that he could even be sent back to Madrid in the current transfer window.
However, he had his best game in a Chelsea shirt in the Carabao Cup semi-final defeat of Tottenham in the week, and he drew praise from his manager Thomas Tuchel afterwards acknowledging that he may finally be adapting to life in England.
Despite that though, those on charge of transfers at Stamford Bridge has not seen enough and he will be allowed to re-join Atlético at the end of the season.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.