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Football transfer news and rumours: 'Chelsea considering bid for Manchester United target Ivan Perisic'
Chelsea's dreadful start to the season could give Antonio Conte the evidence he needs to convince the club to push through several signings before the end of the transfer window, with Inter Milan's Ivan Perisic reported to be a top target.
The Mirror say that the Croatian, valued at £48million by Inter (which presumably means about £8billion in Premier League money), is being lined up as part of an end-of-window shopping spree, along with Juventus' left-back Alex Sandro, Valencia right-back Joao Cancelo and Leicester central midfielder Danny Drinkwater.
Former Chelsea and Inter player Hernan Crespo believes the move could happen. He told the Express:
"It’s possible [Perisic] joins Chelsea – but he plays on the left and on the left you have Eden Hazard, Perisic and Marcos Alonso. Maybe he could come in through the middle or to the right."
Cesar Azpilicueta has said that he reckons Chelsea need to step it up.
"We know that being champions is even harder the next season - we have experience of that. Obviously we need players, also for the development of the young players.
"They need the help from top senior players, not to rush them into a position where maybe they are not ready to go at the moment, but they could be in the future.
"I think it's something that the club is working on with the manager and hopefully we can get new signings in the next few weeks."
Barcelona are expected to step up their transfer business in the wake of the 3-1 defeat to arch rivals Real Madrid in El Clasico.
Any move for Perisic could have knock-on effects, with Barca reportedly interested in signing Eden Hazard. The Sunday Express believes Chelsea would actually consider a £109million bid, which is less than Borussia Dortmund want for Ousmane Dembele...
"Chelsea have reportedly told Barcelona they can sign wing wizard Eden Hazard for a huge £109 million this summer.
"Such a deal would make (Hazard) the second most-expensive player in history, only behind Neymar and ahead of Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba."
Guangzhou Evergrande have already confirmed that Spurs legend Paulinho will officially sign for Barca on Thursday for 40million euro, with Andre Villas-Boas in the belief that this is a great thing for the Chinese Super League:
"Because Paulinho's come here, he's done ever so well and now he has a transfer to one of the biggest clubs in the world.
"I think it shows that the big clubs are also looking at our league. It's a reflection of the players and the quality of work that is being done here."
Meanwhile, at Arsenal, Alexis Sanchez deleted a Tweet which put his location in Paris. But why was the supposedly injured Sanchez in Paris?
There is always a chance that Sanchez was on a short break across the water in the French capital, someone else in his entourage tweeted on his behalf from Sanchez's account or he may well have been using a VPN to access better selections of TV shows on well known (and legal) streaming websites - we may never know.
Either way, Arsenal have offered the Chilean a £300,000 a week contract but Arsene Wenger isn't "super optimistic" about him accepting.
In the know
Philippe Coutinho has repeatedly and constantly been heavily linked with a move to Barcelona and although Liverpool have maintained their stance that he is not for sale, a club shop worker may have inadvertently have revealed that the Brazilian could be off.