Chelsea consider £20m bid for Douglas Costa of Shakhtar Donetsk

Posted Saturday, January 24, 2015 by theguardian.com

· Club holding out for £30m for Brazil midfielder
· Douglas Costa said it would be 'a dream to play for Chelsea'
· Mohamed Salah set to join Roma on loan from Chelsea
· Transfer window news live blog: follow the latest moves

Shakhtar Donetsk's Douglas Costa is in Brazil preparing for a friendly match against Internacional.

Chelsea have sounded out Shakhtar Donetsk over the availability of their Brazilian midfielder Douglas Costa as they explore potential recruits in anticipation of losing at least one first-team player before next month's transfer deadline.

Douglas, with the Ukrainian club's squad on a tour of South America, may prove a more cost-efficient addition than Fiorentina's Juan Cuadrado, for whom Fiorentina are insisting Chelsea meet the £26.8m buyout clause in his contract. Talks with the Italian club are ongoing in the hope a compromise can be struck but there are potential complications with that deal, with the Roma manager Vincenzo Montella having apparently threatened to quit if the Colombian is sold. With that situation delicately poised, the Premier League leaders have also spoken with Shakhtar and suggested they would be willing to pay up to £20m to secure the 24-year-old Costa.

That falls short of his current club's valuation- much nearer to £30m - but Chelsea have received sufficient encouragement to believe there is scope for further negotiation.The Brazil international, who has been capped only twice but has dual Portuguese nationality and should qualify for a work permit, is into his fifth season at the Ukrainian club having joined from Grêmio in 2010 for around £4.5m.

Both Chelsea and Manchester United had scouted him as a teenager and continued to track his progress. The player indicated this week that he would favour a switch to London. "It's a dream to play for Chelsea, a unique opportunity," he told the Brazilian newspaper, Globo Esporte. "I am trying to negotiate [a departure]."

Chelsea's interest in Cuadrado and Douglas stems from the likelihood that Mohamed Salah will depart Stamford Bridge for Roma this month, initially on loan until the summer when the move will be made permanent, after a disappointing year in English football.

The Germany forward André Schürrle could also leave if Wolfsburg or Borussia Dortmund lodge an acceptable bid and persuade him to return to the Bundesliga. Both players remain in José Mourinho's plans for now and, as things stand, will start Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Bradford City.

"The club doesn't move, we don't move, our desire is to keep the same squad," said Mourinho, who has consistently stated that he would prefer no major business in mid-season. "The window is open, but what I can say is I like them, I need them and I trust them. We are happy with the players, we are happy with the work we did in the summer to prepare for the season, [it] reflects the trust we have in the group and, if possible, we don't want to be involved in the transfer window.

"If we have to be it's because somebody pushed us, with some offer for our player, but Chelsea moving and looking for a change? No. Sometimes we have needs, like we had in the past transfer windows where we sold some players.The reality is normally nothing should happen in the next two weeks and we should go to February with the same squad."

Yet both Salah and Schürrle will be tempted by the prospect of regular first-team involvement elsewhere. Mourinho added that it would only take a "phenomenal offer" for him to part with Schürrle, who has made more of an impact since moving from Bayer Leverkusen 18 months ago and would also have to make clear his desire to leave. "The principle is that we would like him to stay," the Chelsea manager said.

"The question is not to be allowed or not allowed. The question is to have a phenomenal offer and a player to be super keen of accepting a new challenge in his career. We don't want to sell our players."