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.