Chelsea Transfer News: Alvaro Morata Watched by Roman Abramovich, Latest Rumours

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich reportedly attended Spain's 2-1 defeat to Croatia at Euro 2016 on Tuesday "to run the rule over" Blues target Alvaro Morata. 

The striker scored in the match and Chelsea have "already opened talks to sign Morata" after Real Madrid recently exercised their £23.6 million buyback clause from Juventus, per Jason Burt in the Telegraph.

It seems clear Real have bought Morata in order to sell him on at a profit with Burt indicating a £40 million price tag has been mooted for the 23-year-old Spaniard.

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There certainly seems to be plenty of interest in him, not only from Chelsea but from other Premier League clubs. 

Morata's agent, Juanma Lopez, has revealed there are offers on the table from a number of English outfits, per Spanish outlet AS (via Goal's Chris Myson): "He still has offers from top clubs in the Premier League. As things stand he is a Madrid player from July 1. Whether he will stay or not, you have to ask Real Madrid. We will see. We still have to talk to [Real manager] Zinedine Zidane, but for the moment Morata is happy."

According to John Cross in the Mirror, Arsenal have pulled out of the race to sign him after being "scared off" by a reported £60 million asking price, but Manchester United and Chelsea remain very interested.

Certainly, if Abramovich travelled to France to watch him play, it seems Chelsea are genuinely serious about making a move, and Morata has done his best to impress at Euro 2016.

He is currently topping the goalscoring charts alongside Gareth Bale after netting three times in as many games.

Incoming Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is also at Euro 2016 as coach of the Italy squad, and he has a big job on his hands to rebuild the Blues into a title-challenging outfit again.

One strike signing is an absolute must for the west London club during the summer as Diego Costa is currently Chelsea's only reliable centre-forward.

Ideally, the Blues would make two new additions to the the strike unit, but at the moment they seem to be focusing on securing either Morata or Everton's Romelu Lukaku, with the former "the more likely signing," per Burt.

Lukaku has, of course, been a Chelsea player in the past and has four full seasons of Premier League experience already under his belt despite being just 23 years old.

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Morata, though, is considered one of the hottest young properties in Europe having excelled in two excellent season with Juve, winning two Serie A titles, two Coppas Italia and a runners-up medal in the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League.

He may not have been overly prolific with the Old Lady—scoring only 15 goals in 63 Serie A appearances, per WhoScored.com—but he has been remarkably effective in the more high-profile games.

In his final match for the Italian giants, he netted the extra-time winner in the Coppa Italia final against AC Milan, while his performance against Bayern Munich in the last-16 second leg of the 2015-16 Champions League showed him to be an all-round star, per FourFourTwo's StatsZone (via Italian football writer Adam Digby):

He is already a big-game player and would surely not be daunted by the challenges of the Premier League. 

There are many good reasons Chelsea look to be on Morata's tail, but they will need to act efficiently if they are to snap him up before any other side does.