Barcelona to announce Marcos Alonso; Aubameyang joins Chelsea

Barcelona announced at ten minutes past midnight the signing of Héctor Bellerín on a one-year deal. An hour later, Chelsea made the arrival of Aubameyang official. The arrival of Marcos Alonso is still pending, but will go through today.

Marcos Alonso’s documentation had to arrive in La Liga, but in his case, as he was an international transfer in a swap deal with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the important thing was for Barcelona to release the striker before midnight and as a result, they now have time to receive the documentation from Chelsea to be able to sign the left-back.

Barcelona remain calm, as they experienced the same situation in the winter transfer window with Aubameyang, as they had to wait a day to deliver all the documentation, but with Arsenal having already released the player at the established time.

Marcos Alonso will be announced as a new Barcelona player later on Friday. He will give Xavi another option on the left flank.

Tuchel welcomes Aubameyang

Thomas Tuchel has a new centre-forward. After the departures of Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner, Chelsea have managed to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for 14 million euros.

It was a busy window for Chelsea, who have spent approximately 250 million euros, with the signings of Wesley Fofana (88 million), Marc Cucurella (65 million), Raheem Sterling (53 million), Kalidou Koulibaly (38 million).

Todd Boehly, Chelsea’s new chairman and interim sporting director, has managed to bring Aubameyang back to London just months after he left rivals Arsenal, where he became captain but his bad behaviour ended up costing him the armband. That is precisely why Tuchel was reluctant to bring him in, although he has eventually relented.

Aubameyang scored 79 goals for Borussia Dortmund with Tuchel in charge at the German club. Tuchel can now capitalise on his goalscoring prowess at a Chelsea side that has been lacking a goalscorer of late.