Atletico Madrid are ready to sell summer signing Nikola Kalinic in a bid to fund Alvaro Morata's wages.
Chelsea are preparing to let the Spanish international go out on loan this month to rediscover his form and hopefully restore some value after his thus-fair unimpressive £60m move to Stamford Bridge.
The club-record signing has a number of offers of which the most appealing would be a return to Madrid with Atleti, but Diego Simeone's side is firmly up against its salary limit and would need to clear some space in order to get close to Morata's £200k per week package.
In looking for the flexibility to be able to incorporate Morata, Gelson Martins and, particularly, Nikola Kalinic have become available.
While Atletico still hope the Portuguese winger will come good, Kalinic was a cut-price summer signing who has played just 400 minutes in La Liga since make a cut-price move from AC Milan.
The Croatian was this week voted the worst signing in Serie A last season - the dreaded 'Golden Bin' award - after receiving 49% of fan votes.
But that hasn't deterred Monaco, who are looking for experience and quality to play alongside their young talents. Cesc Fabregas is waiting to confirm his move to the principality, while Kalinic could be the next man in at the Stade Louis II should Morata and Atletico come to an agreement for the rest of this season.
Chelsea are chasing Gonzalo Higuain to replace Morata, though Callum Wilson of Bournemouth is also an option should Milan not let Higuain cut his loan short from Juventus.
