Chelsea go back in with new £30m bid for Luka Modric

Posted Monday, August 01, 2011 by The Sun

CHELSEA will make a third bid for Luka Modric this week.

The Blues are set to improve their offer to £30million but insist they will not break the bank to sign the Croatian playmaker.

Tottenham have already rejected raids of £22m and £27m from their London neighbours.

Yet Chelsea are confident £30m will finally land their man - a figure that still falls way below Spurs boss Harry Redknapp's valuation for the unsettled midfielder, who missed Saturday's pre-season friendly at Brighton due to illness.

New Blues chief Andre Villas-Boas has already spoken with Stamford Bridge chief executive Ron Gourlay about new signings.

When asked about Modric, Gourlay said: "I don't like talking about players from other clubs. But that's something we'll look at during the week and we'll take it from there.

"We really need to sit down with Andre and talk this through.

"Even though we've been travelling in the Far East for the past two weeks, you can still be active in the marketplace nowadays.

"The communication is always there with our guys back in London or wherever they are around the world."

Chelsea tried Yossi Benayoun in the playmaker's role during their first game at the Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong last week.

And Villas-Boas believes the team needs more attacking creativity if they are to challenge Manchester United's dominance in the forthcoming season.

Chelsea's problem is they have already reached their squad limit for senior overseas players and are struggling to offload various unwanted squad members.

Blues stars on good contracts that still have some time to run are unwilling to lower their sights.

Michael Essien's latest knee injury has created space for one new foreign player.

But Villas-Boas will still have to sell someone if he wants to re-register the crocked Ghanaian international in January.