Transfer News: Chelsea & Man Utd Line-up £20m Combative Midfielder

Chelsea are lining up a £20m move for Newcastle midfielder and Man Utd target Cheik Tiote, according to reports over the weekend.

Chelsea are on the look-out for a defensive minded midfielder following the suspect form of Mikel and the on-going injury problem’s of Michael Essien, and have identified the combative Ivorian as the man to shore up their midfield.

However, Villas-Boas knows he will face stiff competition from Man Utd as Sir Alex Ferguson is also a big admirer of the Newcastle ace and is also considering a January move.

Both clubs would have to submit bids of around £20m to persuade Newcastle in to selling the 25-year-old, which would represent a huge profit on the £3.5m the Magpies paid Twente a year and a half ago. Newcastle manager Alan Pardew confirmed it would take a huge sum to make them sell their star:

“It is going to cost a hell of a lot of money, a hell of a lot of money because we’re in that position now,” he told the Sunday Mirror.

“I think any of our players that get linked to other clubs, those clubs are going to need to know they’ll need to pay a shed load of money to get anyone out of this football club.

“I don’t envisage anyone going out in this window, but if a club, one of the top clubs, comes in and wants to pay way, way over the odds we’ll have to look at it.”