Chelsea gatecrash Arsenal's bid to sign Raphinha and agree £60m deal - Mail 28/6/22
Chelsea gatecrash Arsenal's bid to sign Raphinha and agree £60m deal for Leeds winger, with player's agent and ex-Blues star Deco at the heart of talks as they usurp London rivals at the 11th hour
Chelsea have made an offer of £60million for Leeds United
winger Raphinha
Arsenal held talks with Leeds after their initial offer for
Raphinha was rejected
The 25-year-old now seems set to move to Stamford Bridge
this summer
Chelsea also want to sign winger Raheem Sterling from
Manchester City
By SIMON JONES and SAMI MOKBEL
Chelsea on Tuesday gatecrashed Arsenal's bid to sign
Raphinha from Leeds United with a £60million offer.
Talks are advancing after Leeds accepted a bid of £55m plus
add-ons with former Chelsea midfielder Deco, Raphinha's agent, at the heart of
negotiations.
On a frantic day, Arsenal held talks with Leeds after their
initial offer of £30m plus add-ons was rejected last week and put forward a new
proposal but they did not come close to Chelsea's offer and the Brazilian
winger is now poised to move to Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea plan to team Raphinha with Raheem Sterling in a
new-look strikeforce as they continue parallel discussions with Manchester City
over a £55m deal for the England international.
Chelsea had first posted interest in Raphinha back in
January but had expected the 25-year-old to join Barcelona. However, when it
became apparent that he was considering a move to Arsenal, Chelsea's new
American owner Todd Boehly moved clinically to put his club in a commanding
position.
Personal terms still need to be thrashed out, but that is
not expected to be an issue.
The decisive move came as record signing Romelu Lukaku flew
out to Italy on Tuesday night ahead of his scheduled medical with Inter Milan
on Wednesday morning.
Talks are also ongoing with Juventus who are interested in
taking either Christian Pulisic or Timo Werner as part of a deal for Dutch
defender Matthijs de Ligt.
Ideally Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel wants to pair De Ligt
with compatriot Nathan Ake from Manchester City while Chelsea have also asked
about his clubmate Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Any such deal would be difficult. Ake is open to a return to
London but the price will have to reflect City's need to fund a replacement and
the fact the27-year-old is classed as 'homegrown'.
Sevilla's Jules Kounde, Milan Skriniar of Inter and Kalidou
Koulibaly of Napoli are other names Chelsea are working on for their defence in
case other options falter. Chelsea have also been offered the chance to sign
Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
However, their immediate objective is to beat their rivals
to Raphinha's signature.
The flyer from Porto Alegre had craved a move to Barcelona who
had pursued him for most of the season but, with their financial constraints,
Raphinha had to wait for offers from suitable Premier League clubs. He was open
to joining Arsenal after they made their opening bid but Chelsea offer
immediate Champions League football and, more importantly, matched Leeds'
valuation.
Raphinha scored 11 goals and registered three assists last
season as Leeds narrowly avoided relegation and the acquisition of such a
creative and attacking threat will delight Tuchel as he looks to pose greater
competition to Liverpool and Manchester City.
Raphinha's signing will almost certainly end the club’s
interest in soon to be free agent Ousmane Dembele of Barcelona and Everton's
Richarlison.
For their part, Leeds will focus on their own targets as
they prepare to bank over £100m from the sale of Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips,
who is expected to join City on Friday.