By Toby Prince
English Premier League champions, Chelsea, are ready to make a £72m bid for Juventus midfield powerhouse, Paul Pogba, thereby surpassing the current British record of £44.3m paid by Manchester United for Angel Di Maria.
Reports from the Daily Express claim the Blues are lining up a second bid for the France international after owner Roman Abramovich gave the nod this week.
The London billionaires have had an initial offer of around £55m rejected by Juventus for the player.
Chelsea’s director in charge of transfers, Marina Granovskaia, remains in contact with Juventus over Pogba, and there is a belief that there is a willingness on the part of the Italians to sell their most prized asset this summer rather than wait to sell him to Barcelona when they emerge from their transfer embargo next year.
Chelsea who have already splashed out £42m on Spain winger Pedro and Ghana full-back Baba Rahman are still interested in doing some business in the market before it closes.
The chase for the former Manchester United star come days after Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, criticised some of his players for the team’s unimpressive start to the season.
“I’m not happy with anyone,” he told reporters.
“I’m not happy with Branislav Ivanovic’s form, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Cesar Azpilicueta, Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas, Nemanja Matic.” he lamented.
The Portuguese has been particularly critical of his central midfield pair of Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas with the former’s sloppy defending leading to a penalty at the weekend against West Brom.
Abramovich had indicated he would not be willing to pay more than £60m for the 22-year-old France midfielder, but Mourinho is so keen to have Pogba in his line-up that Chelsea will now make one final bid during this transfer window to break the Italian club’s resolve.
But the 2013 Uefa golden boy has not hidden his admiration for European champions Barcelona admitting playing alongside Lionel Messi will be a “dream come true” for him.
Signs that both clubs may eventually do business emerged on Tuesday with the announcement that Juan Cuadrado completed his move to Juventus on a season-long loan from Chelsea.
The 27-year-old Colombia forward returns to Serie A seven months since moving to the Premier League champions from Fiorentina.
