Alvaro Morata is saying his goodbyes at Real Madrid today as he prepares to join Chelsea.Having spent the summer pursuing Romelu Lukaku, Antonio Conte will have been disappointed to lose the Belgian to Manchester United - but the Morata deal will soften the blow.According to the Daily Mail, the Blues will pay Real a club record £70.6million to secure the 24-year-old.So, how does he compare to Lukaku?Jose Mourinho will firmly believe he's had the last laugh, but Morata's stats stack up pretty nicely.The former Everton man scored 25 Premier League goals last season as he was narrowly pipped to the Golden Boot by Harry Kane. As for Morata, he found the back of the net 15 times in just 14 starts.If the Spanish international was indeed only Chelsea's second choice, then it just goes to show how ambitious they're being in the transfer market.

Morata was Conte's choice

La Liga expert Guillem Balague has shed some light on the Lukaku vs Morata conundrum by revealing that the latter was always the manager's preferred option, as he had a major concern about Lukaku's game:

This has a bit of a 'never fancied her anyway' ring to it. Lukaku's flaws are well known and his football brain may be far from perfect, but Chelsea wouldn't have been complaining if he'd signed for them.

Yet, as Balague points out, they're ultimately signing a very good finisher with bags of speed.

Conte's got his man 

It's likely Conte was the one vouching for Morata in the boardroom as he was the manager who originally signed him for Juventus before leaving to take the Italy job.

The following season, he followed Serie A closely and was impressed by the forward's all-round play and goal scoring.

One big concern comes out of this - it sounds as if Conte and the board did not see eye to eye.

If they did disagree on the matter, it can't have been too serious because the Italian has now been rewarded with a new deal, albeit one which doesn't extend his stay at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea's board will do well to trust his judgement, though, and like every other football fan on the planet, they can spend next season comparing the two strikers to see if they got the best deal.

Is signing Morata a better deal than United have got with Lukaku? Have your say in the comments.