Chelsea to up Alvaro Pereira offer amid Florent Malouda speculation

Posted Thursday, August 25, 2011 by theguardian.com

Chelsea to up Alvaro Pereira offer amid Florent Malouda speculation
Chelsea's Florent Malouda has interested Juventus, with the Blues preparing a second bid for Alvaro Pereira.

Chelsea are to lodge an improved bid for Alvaro Pereira after Porto rejected an opening offer of £16.6m for the Uruguay international, with the Londoners considering selling Florent Malouda to Juventus for a knockdown fee as they continue to reshape their squad.

Pereira, who can operate on the left of defence or midfield, would be a direct replacement for the departed Yuri Zhirkov at Stamford Bridge following the Russian's sale to Anzhi Makhachkala. Porto have already signed the 25-year-old's replacement, Alex Sandro, at the Estádio Dragão but will still seek a fee closer to the £26m release clause in the South American's contract.

Chelsea are confident that the player will be reunited with André Villas-Boas before next Wednesday's deadline, though – with the Spain international Juan Mata having now completed his £23.5m arrival from Valencia on a five-year deal – Pereira's signing would necessitate the trimming of the squad to comply with the Premier League's 25-man rule. Yossi Benayoun is effectively available for transfer but, at present, Malouda appears the likeliest first-team player to move on.

The France international scored Chelsea's winning goal against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, but his desire to be offered a contract extension to 2014 – expressed publicly this summer – has not prompted a response from the club, with reports in Italy suggesting Chelsea are ready to offload the 31-year-old, a £13.5m signing from Lyon in 2007, to Juventus for as little as £5m. The Italian club's general director, Giuseppe Marotta, was quoted on Wednesday night claiming the Frenchman was "definitely an interesting player", with the club seeking to complete their transfer business ahead of the start of the Serie A season.

There remains the scope for further departures from Stamford Bridge. Slobodan Rajkovic has completed a £2m move to Hamburg on a four-year deal, while the Brazil centre-half Alex has also attracted interest at Juve and the England Under-21 international Ryan Bertrand may seek first-team football elsewhere. Yet Chelsea still aspire to securing Luka Modric from Tottenham Hotspur before next week's deadline despite Spurs' position appearing increasingly entrenched on a player who has five years to run on his contract at White Hart Lane.

Harry Redknapp suggested on Wednesday night that he would ideally like to play the Croatia international for "an hour" in Thursday evening's Europa League play-off second leg against Hearts, though the 25-year-old did not train with his team-mates at Chigwell on Wednesday and is still apparently troubled by a tight hamstring. Regardless, the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, remains adamant that a sale will not be countenanced and, if the player misses Sunday's visit of Manchester City, he will not be released for Croatia's Euro 2012 qualifiers against Malta and Israel.

"The chairman made another statement on Tuesday night that Luka is definitely not going," said Redknapp. "He spoke to Chelsea and said: 'Let's put an end to this because it is not going to happen.' If that is the case, there is no movement and he is going to stay. We want him here and the chairman will sit down with him in the next couple of weeks and look at his contract. If there's something we can do we will do it. He's not for sale."

That stance was outlined with an acceptance that Modric will find it difficult to accept his chances of moving to Stamford Bridge and competing in the Champions League, as well as "trebling his salary", according to Redknapp, over the coming months. "He is going to be sitting there every week thinking he could be winning with them in the Champions League, or competing with them for the title, and earning £100,000 a week more," added Redknapp.Redknapp recognised that it would be hard for Modric to deal with missing out on a move to Chelsea. "The rewards he would get there would be incredible, and that's not easy for him. None of us know how he will feel. What is in his head, who knows?

"But if he is not going to go then he has to get on and play football. There is nothing you can do. We are not going to give the type of money that he could earn at Chelsea, that cannot happen here, but he has to get on with it for his own good. He has to be the player that we all know he is and have a great season. The chairman has made his mind up and is not going to let him go. That will be it."