European club set to make fresh offer for Chelsea star as 'directors meet' for transfer talks

Chelsea are still working on deals to get unwanted players out of the club with plenty being made of Enzo Maresca’s bloated squad this week, in particular. The Blues have signed a number of new players again this season, and while they have done a better job of balancing finances, they have not been able to prevent the bloating of their already big squad.

Raheem Sterling released a statement this week through his representatives, rocking the boat after being told he wasn’t the kind of winger Maresca is looking for. Chelsea have plenty of other disgruntled players, too, with a separate training squad made up of players who are not in Maresca’s plans.

As harsh as it may seem from the Leicester boss, it’s an issue both Graham Potter and Mauricio Pochettino had before him, and with more than 40 registered first-team players and with only 25 players able to feature in the Premier League squad, Maresca must be decisive with his selections, unlikely to keep everyone happy regardless of what decisions he makes.

For Chelsea there is also the question of Profit and Sustainability after two years or so of huge spending, and they will want to balance the books by adding to their list of sales this summer. Romelu Lukaku is a player that will almost certainly be sold, with Napoli pushing to land his signature this summer.

Lukaku latest

According to Il Corriere dello Sport via Football Italia, Napoli director Giovanni Manna is in London after holding talks with Chelsea on Thursday, and those talks are set to resume on Friday after a failure to agree on terms in the first day of face-to-face talks. The report suggests Chelsea will accept a deal worth £33.8million for the striker, but Napoli are only bidding £27million, according to Tuttosport.

The report claims that offer is after Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis gave the aforementioned Manna permission to raise the offer by around £1.5million. Fresh talks will take place on Friday, but it seems the two clubs remain a long way apart in their valuations at this stage.