Argentina international striker Gonzalo Higuain is on the verge of signing with Premier League club Chelsea. The club's manager Maurizio Sarri said on Wednesday in a press conference that the striker would sign for the clubs in hours, ending his loan at AC Milan to join the London-based club. The team made the move official Wednesday. It's expected to be a loan move with a chance to make it permanent if he impresses. Now, let's grade the move: The move for Chelsea On paper, it makes perfect sense. There isn't a big transfer fee behind it as it is a loan. He starred under Sarri at Napoli, and when in form he is one of the better club strikers in Europe. Higuain is a guy that at minimum should give you 20 goals a season. Over the last five seasons, he's averaged 29.2 goals per campaign, and the Blues really need a striker. Alvaro Morata hasn't worked out, and reports suggest he's heading to Atletico Madrid. With the inconsistent play up top, Eden Hazard has been forced to play as a false nine. This move will give the Belgium winger the chance to play more naturally out wide and let Higuain sit in the box to put the ball away. Grade: A You can watch select Chelsea games in the Premier Leauge on fuboTV (Try for free). The move for Higuain I love this move for Higuain, because things just weren't working at Milan. He has eight goals in 22 games, and Milan hasn't been playing very well. The club is nothing like it used to be when it dominated Europe, dealing with financial issues in the past, inconsistency in coaching and the failure to find chemistry in its starting lineup. Grade: A-plus The move for Milan They get to end the loan deal and save money. They are probably better with him than without him. The club is in fourth place in Serie A but far from where it wants to be. Reports out of Italy suggest the club is on the verge of signing young striker Krzysztof Piątek of Genoa to lead the front-line instead of Higuain. Twenty-eight goals in 20 matches thus far in league play tell the story as to how the club has struggled in attack. They have 18 league games remaining to hang on to a top-four spot and book a ticket to next season's Champions League. Grade: B-minus The move for Juventus I still can't help but think Higuain could help Juventus. Having Higuain as the No. 9 with Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala on either side, to me it would be unstoppable. But Ronaldo has taken over the striker role with Mario Mandzukic at times, and if it ain't broke ... you probably don't need to fix it. Juve is undefeated in league play, looking strong in the Champions League and seem to be doing just fine without him. Sending him out again on loan and hoping to find a buyer for the 31-year-old come this summer seems like the smartest move at this point. Grade: A-minus<doc-sep>Follow Tuchel's Blues. Get our daily Chelsea newsletter Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign me up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Gonzalo Higuain, Chelsea's No. 9. Got a good ring to it, hasn't it? Well, no. Maybe not. The Argentinean joined the Blues on loan for the rest of the season on Wednesday, shaking hands on £270,000-a-week wages. He announced: "When the opportunity to join Chelsea presented itself I had to take it. "It's a team I've always liked that has a lot of history, a wonderful stadium and they play in the Premier League, a league I've always wanted to play in. "I now hope I can give back that trust Chelsea have shown me out on the pitch. I can't wait to start and I hope to adapt as soon as possible." And it was then revealed he would wear the dreaded NUMBER NINE! While Arsenal and Liverpool have also had trouble with the digit in recent years, Chelsea seem to be cursed when it comes to their No. 9s, especially in the post-Roman Abramovich era. Here's a rundown of the good, the bad, the okay and the downright weird since squad numbers were introduced in 1993. THE GOOD Gianluca Vialli - 1996/99 (Image: Daily Mirror) The Italian seemed to usher in a new Chelsea era when he was unveiled by Ruud Gullit following his free transfer move in the summer of 1996, and he went on to find the net 40 times for the club on the way to winning both domestic cups. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink - 2000/04 (Image: PA) Possessing a right foot that could have been classified as a dangerous weapon, Dutch forward Hasselbaink had already had a taste of the Premier League with Leeds when he moved to Chelsea from Atletico Madrid in 2000. He proved to be an huge success, scoring 88 times in 177 games on the way to winning hero status at Stamford Bridge. THE BAD Tony Cascarino - 1992/94 (Image: Daily Mirror) The forward was prolific in the 80s with Gillingham and Millwall, but he'd lost some of that goal threat by the time he reached Chelsea in 1992. He scored just four times when he was Chelsea's first ever post-squad number No. 9 in 1993/94, when the Blues finished 14th. Different times. Chris Sutton - 1999/2000 (Image: The People) Back in the days when £10m would get you more than just a fifth of Kyle Walker, the world winced at the fee Chelsea paid relegated Blackburn for forward Sutton in the summer of 1999. Despite his success at Ewood Park he'd prove to be an expensive mistake for the Blues, scoring just three times in 39 games. Mateja Kezman - 2004/05 (Image: Daily Mirror) Blues fans were excited at the arrival of Serbian Kezman in the summer of 2004, with a fantastic goalscoring record at PSV Eindhoven used as evidence that he was about to take the Premier League by storm. However, despite Jose Mourinho's all-conquering side winning the league that season, Kezman proved a disappointment. He did score in the League Cup final win over Liverpool, but managed just six other strikes for the club. Fernando Torres - 2011/14 (Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images) The £50m arrival from Liverpool in January 2011 was greeted with a huge fanfare from Chelsea supporters, but what the Reds neglected to tell them was that he'd lost all of his powers in the preceding six months. The previously unstoppable forward could be very easily stopped at Stamford Bridge, and although he contributed to the club's 2012 Champions League success, he was a shadow of his former self. Radamel Falcao - 2015/16 (Image: Jordan Mansfield) After being largely useless on loan at Manchester United the previous season, previously fearsome Colombian forward Falcao then moved on to be similarly useless at Chelsea. He played just 12 times, scoring once, and then went back to Monaco to rediscover his mojo. Alvaro Morata - 2017/18 (Image: PA) The Spanish striker was supposed to be the man to lift the curse when he arrived at the club last summer, but in the end he just became another high-profile victim of it. Looking almost permanently short of confidence, the former Real Madrid and Juventus man has had his moments at the club but they've been too few and far between. After one season of carrying the No.9 burden he switched to the No.29 for this season, but things haven't got much better. THE OKAY Mark Stein - 1994/96 The nippy forward had had goalscoring success in the lower leagues before joining Chelsea in 1993, and then taking the No. 9 shirt a year later. He netted 11 times wearing it in the 1994/95 season, but never quite found the net consistently. Hernan Crespo - 2005/06 (Image: The People) Initially given the No. 21 when he joined in 2003, Argentinean forward Crespo took the No. 9 shirt when he came back from a loan spell at Milan in 2004/05, when his goals drove them to the Champions League final. He struck 13 times in all competitions as the Blues won the league, before he left again. THE DOWNRIGHT WEIRD Khalid Boulahrouz - 2006/07 (Image: Birmingham Post and Mail) An £8.5m signing from Hamburg after the 2006 World Cup, the Dutch CENTRE-BACK had the cheek to inexplicably take the No. 9 shirt simply because it was available. With his Blues career getting off to that inauspicious start he was never likely to be a success, and he played just 20 times in all competitions before vanishing off to Sevilla, with his choice of squad number the most notable thing about his time. Steve Sidwell - 2007/08 (Image: Daily Mirror) You can kind of sympathise with Sidwell's decision to take the shirt off Boulahrouz when he joined Chelsea on a free transfer in 2007, as he was hardly likely to be at the club for long so he might as well try and do something memorable. The ginger midfielder managed 25 incident-free appearances for the Blues before moving on to Aston Villa. Franco Di Santo - 2008/09 (Image: Coventry Telegraph) A traumatic three years for the shirt were completed when teenager Di Santo took it on in 2008, presumably with an eye on becoming a first-choice forward for Luiz Felipe Scolari's side. Instead he played just 16 times, failed to score and ended up getting farmed off on loan to Blackburn Rovers before joining Wigan. Which probably wasn't what he had planned.<doc-sep>
Gonzalo Higuain has completed his long-anticipated loan deal to Chelsea from Juventus, with Alvaro Morata now expected to depart the club imminently. The Argentine forward was on loan at AC Milan this season from Juve following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, but told the club he wanted to move to Stamford Bridge. The deal sees Higuain reunite with Maurizio Sarri, who was in charge of Napoli during the 31-year-old’s most prolific period to date when he scored 36 goals during the 2015/16 season. ﻿DONE DEAL: BARCA WIN RACE FOR ‘PERFECT’ $119M PRODIGY UNITED SPURN ARSENAL BID AS MARTIAL COMPLETES TRANSFER U-TURN RATED: THE 10 BIG-MONEY PL DEALS THAT COULD STILL HAPPEN THIS MONTH Gonzalo Higuain with Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia after signing on loan until the end of the season. Source: Twitter Higuain will wear the No.9 shirt but was seemingly not registered in time to play in Chelsea’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Tottenham on Friday morning (AEDT). “When the opportunity to join Chelsea presented itself I had to take it,” Higuain said. “It’s a team I’ve always liked that has a lot of history, a wonderful stadium and they play in the Premier League, a league I’ve always wanted to play in. “I now hope I can give back that trust Chelsea have shown me out on the pitch. I can’t wait to start and I hope to adapt as soon as possible.” Chelsea director, Marina Granovskaia, added: “Gonzalo was our number one target in this transfer window and arrives with a proven record at the highest level. He has previously worked with Maurizio to great effect and is familiar with how the coach likes to play. “This was not an easy deal for us to do because of the numerous parties involved, but we are delighted we were able to make it happen and we look forward to seeing the impact Gonzalo will make for us in the second half of the season.” Higuain joins $A106m signing Christian Pulisic as Chelsea’s other major signing this January, although the American will remain with Borussia Dortmund until the end of the season.