Chelsea Hopeful Of Securing £30m Attacker Deal Despite Liverpool Tabling Formal Bid

With the winter transfer window in full swing, manager’s are working hard trying to strengthen their squads ahead of the second half of the season. Today, the race hots up for Alex Teixeira….

Chelsea remain hopeful of beating Liverpool to the £30m signing of Alex Teixeira despite the Reds tabling a formal offer for the Shakhtar Donetsk attacker this week, according to the Mirror.

The Blues have been strongly linked with a move for the Brazilian attacker this month with the Express reporting earlier this week that they were in talks with Shakhtar over a potential deal after Teixeira had verbally agreed personal terms over a move to Stamford Bridge.

Liverpool then moved to hijack Chelsea’s deal with the Guardian claiming on Thursday that Reds chief executive Ian Ayre had flown to Florida – where Shakhtar are enjoying their winter training camp – and saw an opening offer worth £24.6m rejected by the Ukrainian club.

It looks like Chelsea are now ready to step-up their interest as the Mirror claim that the Premier League champions will now press ahead with their own negotiations in light of Liverpool’s formal offer.

The newspaper suggests that Liverpool will fight Chelsea all the way over Teixeira but the West Londoners remain hopeful of winning the race for the 26-year-old’s signature and are willing to pay closer to Shakhtar’s £30m valuation.

Chelsea have made a habit of hijacking other club’s deals in the past so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Teixeira eventually ended up moving to Stamford Bridge this month, but Liverpool do appear determined to land Jurgen Klopp’s prime target.

Both Chelsea and Liverpool are in desperate need of some creativity in the final third and Teixeira would certainly fit the bill as he’s scored 26 goals in just 26 games for Shakhtar this season and he’s capable of playing in a variety of positions in attack.

There have been suggestions that Teixeira may struggle to gain a work permit due to the fact he’s yet to earn a cap for the Brazilian national team. However, the player should be successful in winning an appeal as he meets the criteria under the new points based system which awards points on factors such as the transfer fee paid, the players wage and whether he’s competed in top level European football.

READ MORE –> Chelsea transfer news | Liverpool transfer news

This story is developing all the time and it certainly looks like this could be the big transfer saga during the closing stages of the winter window, so it’s going to be extremely interesting to see how it all plays out over the coming days.