Chelsea
Chelsea Tabled Stunning €150m Bid For Lionel Messi
Some stunning reports coming out of Spain tonight claiming that Chelsea submitted a world record €150m bid for Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi over the summer.
The summer transfer window may be closed but managers are already thinking ahead to future transfer windows so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip. Today, Chelsea are linked with a stunning move for Lionel Messi.
Some stunning reports coming out of Spain tonight claiming that Chelsea submitted a world record €150m (£118m) bid for Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi over the summer.
The Daily Star are citing reports from Spanish television station TV3 who suggest that Jose Mourinho made a sensational move for the Argentinean striker early in the summer transfer window with the Portuguese coach tabling a formal offer worth €150m (£118m).
The newspaper states that Mourinho felt it was the right time to try and prize Messi away from Barca as doubts were raised over his future due to an on-going contract wrangle at the time while the Spaniards had just come off the back of a difficult season that saw them finish up without a major trophy.
However, it’s claimed that the mega bid was rejected out of hand by the Catalans before Messi went on to pen a new contract to keep him at the Nou Camp until 2018.
If these reports are accurate, it was certainly an audacious approach from Chelsea and would have been a major coup had they managed to somehow pull it off.
The West Londoners brought in over £100m over the last two transfer windows following the sales of players like Juan Mata, Romelu Lukaku and David Luiz, so they had the financial clout to pay for the deal. But it appears Barcelona weren’t interested in letting their star man go without a fight and were able to tie him down to a fresh contract in the end.
Chelsea went on to sign Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, Loic Remy and Filipe Luis in the summer and have started the new season in superb fashion, with Mourinho’s men currently sitting three points clear at the top of the Premier League table after five games.
However, fans may be left wondering just how lethal the team could have been had they managed to lure a certain Argentinean superstar to Stamford Bridge this summer….
