Chelsea look to big fishes
Roman takes yacht to France for talks on £65m Pulisic
CHELSEA are formulating their recruitment drive from the south of France this weekend as Marina Granovskaia and Roman Abramovich discuss a potential £ 65million move for Borussia Dortmund’s Christian Pulisic.
While Chelsea took on Inter Milan in a friendly in Nice yesterday, Abramovich is understood to have sailed on his yacht into nearby Antibes to conduct meetings with Granovskaia, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund.
Talks with Dortmund have centred on Pulisic but Bayern Munich are also in the frame for the forward.
Chelsea also met representatives from Juventus in Nice yesterday with targets Gonzalo Higuain, Daniele Rugani and Mattia Caldara the topics of discussion.
Higuain, 30, is tipped to cost about £55m and any arrival at Stamford Bridge would impact on the future of striker Alvaro Morata, who has attracted interest from AC Milan.
Rugani is priced at about £45m while Caldara would cost £40m.
Higuain will need convincing that his future is at Chelsea, however.
The striker is concerned about moving to the Premier League so late in his career.
As of last night, sources in Italy said Chelsea were closest to signing Caldara, the 24- year- old centre-back who spent last season on loan at Atalanta.
Talks will continue between the two clubs, though significant work will have to be done if Higuain is to make t he move t o St a mford Bridge.
Having said that, Chelsea’s new manager Maurizio Sarri is known to be close to the Argentine.
Higuain played under the Italian tactician at Napoli and scored a record 36 goals in 35 games in Serie A in 2015-16. Sarri arrived at Napoli in 2015 and one of his first tasks was convincing his forward to stay.
Higuain later said: ‘He took just a few minutes to convince me to remain at the club.’
The striker is seen as someone who knows the ‘Sarri-ball’ system that Chelsea’s head coach hopes can work in the Premier League this season. Last night against Inter, Sarri named the same line-up that beat Perth Glory 1-0 in Australia last week. It included Morata up front alongside Pedro and 17-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi.
So far this summer Chelsea have signed Jorginho for £ 57m from Napoli and goalkeeper Rob Green on a free transfer.
Chelsea, meanwhile, are confident there will be no issues with Real Madrid target Eden Hazard in the coming weeks. The Belgian is not pushing for a move and is due to return from his post-World Cup holidays the day before t he Community Shield against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium.
Sarri is including Hazard in his plans for the upcoming Premier League season.
As reported by Sports mail yesterday, the 27- year- old is in contention for the Chelsea captaincy. Sarri has identified Hazard as a candidate to lead his squad. Cesar Azpilicueta and Cesc Fabregas are also in contention.
There is some hope that handing Hazard more responsibility could help convince the Belgium skipper to ignore any interest from Real.
Hazard has been with Chelsea since 2012, being named their Player of the Year three times, though he has continued to stall on signing a new £ 300,000- a- week contract.
Milan, meanwhile, are also interested in Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko.