And his boss looks next

CHELSEA are confident they have beaten Manchester City to £50m man Jorginho.

And the arrival of the Napoli star now looks sure to be followed by his manager of last season, Maurizio Sarri.

Napoli agreed to sell Brazil-born Italy midfielder Jorginho to City over a fortnight ago.

But it appears the 26-year-old has been swayed to go to Stamford Bridge, where Sarri is poised to take over from Antonio Conte, who took training yesterday.

Talks

Sarri, who has been spotted in London, has been replaced as manager at Napoli by Carlo Ancelotti.

City could still try to stop the Jorginho deal but Chelsea believe they have got their man.

The Blues have also opened talks with France midfielder N’Golo Kante about an improved deal in the wake of interest from Real Madrid and Paris St-Germain.

Kante, 27, still has three years left on his contract but looks set to see his pay rise from £120,000 a week to at least £200,000. Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis admitted City had been in pole position to sign Jorginho.

He said: “These offers did not start from Chelsea but from Manchester City.

“I will apologise to (City owner) Khaldoon Al Mubarak because I found a deal with Khaldoon 15 days ago.

“He called me, we spoke on the phone, and I said, ‘Okay, I don’t agree with you on A, B, C – let’s solve the situation, the two of us’. And we did it, we solved it.

“However, if, for personal reasons I won’t get into, the player prefers to live in London rather than in Manchester, I can understand him.

“If Chelsea pay him more, I can understand it, too. So I can just apologise to Khaldoon.”

Conte took Chelsea players in a double training session yesterday but his days are numbered.

Legal complications about his £9.5m pay-off and the amount of compensation paid to Napoli for Sarri – believed to be a sum of around £7m – has delayed the inevitable this summer.