ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:CHELSEA ARE considering offering Yossi Benayoun and Salomon Kalou as makeweights in a deal for Tottenham Hotspur's playmaker Luka Modric.
Spurs have already rejected two Chelsea bids for Modric this summer, worth €25 million and €31 million, and the chairman, Daniel Levy, has insisted that the unsettled midfielder, who has expressed a desire to move to Stamford Bridge, will not be sold at any price.
Despite this, a third bid has been anticipated for some time but with Chelsea apparently reluctant to offer more than €34 million for the 25-year-old, they are now exploring alternative ways of adding value to any deal.
Chelsea had been resistant to the idea of offering players as part of any deal for the Croatian, their principal creative midfield target. That stance is understood to have shifted with the option of offering the two players in part-exchange, together with a fee of around €31 million, now under discussion.
Chelsea’s manager Andre Villas-Boas is aware that despite off-loading Yuri Zhirkov to Anzhi Makhachkala this summer, he must create spaces within his 25-man Premier League squad to be submitted next month – only 17 of whom can be non-homegrown senior players – if he is to strengthen the midfield.
The Premier League runners-up are also monitoring Raul Meireles’s availability at Liverpool, though their priority remains Modric. But it remains to be seen whether Tottenham would be receptive to the possibility of taking either of the players potentially on offer.
Benayoun has attracted tentative interest from Roma, Galatasaray and clubs in Russia this close season, and is the man whose position would be most under threat should Modric move across the capital.
The Israeli was denied the chance to make an impact in his first year at Chelsea after suffering a serious achilles injury last September and despite the 31-year-old impressing in pre-season, reports emerged in Israel last week that he expects to leave Stamford Bridge.
Kalou’s possible availability would constitute more of a surprise and the Ivorian started Sunday’s draw at Stoke City. However, Chelsea have a host of forward options with Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba – a player Tottenham would be keener to sign – Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka now joined by Romelu Lukaku, and with Daniel Sturridge having impressed on loan at Bolton last term and for his own club in pre-season. The England Under-21 striker, who is serving a three-match suspension, is expected to play a significant role this term.
Tottenham still hope to refresh their own frontline this summer – they have sold Robbie Keane to LA Galaxy for €4 million and may yet move on any of Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe or Roman Pavlyuchenko – though it would still represent something of a reversal of policy if Levy was suddenly receptive to a Modric deal with makeweights thrown in.
Comparisons have been drawn with Spurs’ apparently similar hard-line stance with both Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov, which mellowed after much wrangling as the transfer deadline approached in both cases, though the Croatian’s case is very different.
Carrick only had two years to run on his Spurs contract in 2006 and had made it clear he would not sign a new deal at the club. With Berbatov in 2008, Tottenham feared the Bulgarian might invoke the Webster ruling and buy out the remainder of his contract the following summer to force through his own move to Manchester United, effectively for a knock-down fee. Yet Modric is contracted until 2016 and has been commended for his professionalism since arriving at White Hart Lane.
Meanwhile, QPR have moved to allay fears about Kieron Dyer’s fitness by confirming the midfielder will return to training in “days rather than weeks” after being forced off the pitch less than five minutes into his debut against Bolton on Saturday. Dyer, whose career has been wrecked over recent seasons by a succession of injuries, was carried off on a stretcher amid fears that he had suffered a serious foot injury, but scans have since confirmed that the 32-year-old has not sustained a fracture.
Alan Pardew is hoping to have Erik Pieters, the PSV Eindhoven left-back, signed and in his Newcastle United side in time for Saturday’s derby at Sunderland. Pardew, who has been without a left-back since Jose Enrique’s move to Liverpool and continues to search for a new striker, is understood to have ordered Joey Barton to tone down the often controversial nature of his comments on Twitter and also refrain from commenting on events involving Newcastle United.
Guardian Service
