Chelsea Chase £20m Ramires And £17 Million Neymar In Brazilian Double Raid

Chelsea have offered Benfica £20 million for Brazilian World Cup star Ramires, reports the Daily Mail.

The popular 'Blue Kenyan' is also being courted by Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

Representatives of the 23-year-old say moving to Stamford Bridge would be a 'dream move' for the Brazilian.

Ramires himself is quoted as saying: "It would be a dream for me to play for a big club such as Barcelona, Real Madrid or Chelsea."

Ramires caught the eye when he embarked on an impressive run before setting up Robinho to score in Brazil's 3-0 victory over Chile during World Cup 2010.

Meanwhile Brazilian side Santos has told the Blues their £17m bid for wonderkid Neymar does not reach their valuation.

Santos want £30m but the 18-year-old is keen on a Premier League move and the World Cup star could force his club's hand.

If Santos Starlet Neymar Wants To Join Chelsea We Will Try To Make It Happen - Agent

Santos starlet Neymar will make the final decision on his transfer to Chelsea after the club failed to meet his £29.5 million buyout clause, according to his agent.

The Premier League champions have already seen a £16.9 million bid rejected for the highly-rated Brazil youth international yesterday. After scoring 12 goals in 35 appearances for the Sao Paulo-based outfit, manager Carlo Ancelotti is believed to be eager to bring the player to Stamford Bridge.

Speaking to the SporTV television channel, agent Wagner Ribeiro confirmed Chelsea's previous offer and then insisted Neymar's will would go a long way to deciding his future if he decides to force through a transfer.

He said: "Today, I'm going to have a meeting with the boy's parents and also with a senior manager at Santos, Pedro Luiz Nunes Conception. But the more important [aspect to] this story is the will of the boy. If he says he wants to leave we will talk with the president [Luis Álvaro de Oliveira Ribeiro] and Pedro Luiz. Hence, we must also talk to the investor to negotiate with Chelsea."

Ribeiro also went on to confirm that an offer of £17.7m would not be enough to conclude the deal as the player is part-owned by the SONDA agency. This figure would only meet the 60 per cent owned by Santos, and would fall short of the overall figure of £29.5m needed to meet the release clause for all parties.

Feyenoord Confirm Interest In Chelsea Striker Franco Di Santo

Feyenoord's technical director Leo Beenhakker has confirmed that the Eredivisie giants are interested in signing young Chelsea attacker Franco di Santo on a one-year loan deal.

The Rotterdam side is in the market for a new striker following the retirement of Roy Makaay earlier this summer and head coach Mario Been supposedly sees Di Santo as the perfect replacement.

"The team is looking pretty good at the moment. We only need one more striker and we're done on the transfer market. Di Santo is indeed one of the players we're interested in, but there's a lot of competition in the race for his signature," said Beenhakker to Voetbal International.

The 21-year-old Di Santo joined Chelsea from Audax Italiano in January 2008, but the Argentinian striker has so far failed to make an impact at the Blues. He was farmed out on loan to Blackburn Rovers last term and scored one goal in 22 league appearances.

Feyenoord reportedly face competition from Wigan Athetic and Twente in the race for Di Santo's services.

Petr Cech To Miss Start Of Premier League Season With Calf Injury

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech is set to be sidelined for the start of the Premier League season after tearing a calf muscle in his right leg, the club has confirmed.

Cech, 28, suffered the blow in training yesterday and is expected to be missing for the next month. This has ruled him out of the remaining pre-season friendlies, the Charity Shield clash against Manchester United on August 8 and at least the opening fixture in the defence of their league crown against West Bromwich Albion on August 14.

The Czech Republic international endured a similar knock in the last campaign against Inter in the Champions League and missed several weeks of action between February and March. Reserve shot-stoppers Henrique Hilario and Ross Turnbull will now compete to fill in between the posts at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea Won’t Sign Cech Replacement

Chelsea are not intending to buy a new goalkeeper during the transfer window despite the confirmation yesterday that their first-choice No 1, Petr Cech, will miss the start of the season through injury.

Chelsea is confident they have enough cover after Cech was ruled out for a month with a tear in his right calf.

The 28-year-old sustained the injury in training on Tuesday and scans revealed the damage would eliminate him from the rest of the club's pre-season build-up.

Cech will also miss the Community Shield against Manchester United at Wembley on August 8 as well as the start of Chelsea's defence of the title against West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge the following weekend.

The Czech Republic's player of the year was out of action for two months earlier this year with a similar injury he sustained during Chelsea's Champions League match against Internazionale. He was replaced by Hilario for the remainder of the opening leg in Italy but Ross Turnbull played in the return leg, which Chelsea lost 1-0, after the Portuguese keeper also collected an injury.

A spokesman said: “Scans have shown Petr has torn a calf muscle in his right leg and is expected to be out for a month. He suffered the injury yesterday in training and is now expected to miss the start of our competitive season, as well as the remainder of our pre-season friendlies, the next of which comes at Ajax on Friday.”

Henrique Hilário Steps Up After Petr Cech Is Ruled Out For A Month

Henrique Hilário is in line to start the new season in goal for Chelsea, after the club confirmed that Petr Cech had torn the calf muscle in his right leg and would be sidelined for the next four weeks.

Carlo Ancelotti, the manager, is expected to prefer Hilário to his other back-up goalkeeper, Ross Turnbull, for the Community Shield fixture against Manchester United two weeks on Sunday and the Premier League opener at home to West Bromwich Albion the following Saturday. If Cech's rehabilitation goes according to plan, he should be back for the game at Wigan Athletic on 21 August.

Cech had returned to Chelsea training on 5 July, together with Hilário and Turnbull, and he had hoped to benefit from a full pre-season, as a side-effect of the Czech Republic failing to qualify for the World Cup. But after playing for 30 minutes in the 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday he will now miss the club's remaining friendlies against Ajax, Eintracht Frankfurt and Hamburg.

Hilário was put through extra training yesterday by the goalkeeping coach Christophe Lollichon, after Cech felt his calf muscle tear during a routine jog and the 34-year-old Portuguese, who made 11 appearances in all competitions last season, is preparing for a return to the spotlight.

Kakuta Feels No Guilt

Chelsea attacker Gael Kakuta believes he has nothing to feel guilty about following his controversial transfer from Lens.

The 19-year-old Frenchman moved to Stamford Bridge back in 2007, although the Ligue 1 club was outraged at his switch to the Premier League.

Lens claimed the player's move was in breach of his contract and last year Fifa banned Kakuta from playing for four months and barred Chelsea from making any signings in the next two transfer windows.

The sanctions were subsequently rescinded following an appeal from the Blues to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, ruling that he did not have a legitimate contract with Les Sang et Or despite spending eight years with the club.

Kakuta does not believe he did anything wrong regarding his transfer, and does not feel guilty.

He told L'Equipe: "I was calm. I had nothing to feel guilty about.

"I couldn't care less. I went on working. That is football, you know."

All To Play For In France

Chelsea's band of Under 19 internationals were in action again on Wednesday, with a win, a loss and a draw.

Gael Kakuta once again played the full 90 minutes for hosts France, who recorded their second big win in four days, this time destroying Austria 5-0.

Just like on Sunday, Kakuta's fine solo work ended in a goal, though this time not for himself, as after beating three men before passing to Alexandre Lacazette to finish the move six minutes after the hour. That was the second of the game, and Lacazette would claim another before the final whistle, Antoine Griezemann also netting a brace before Enzo Reale completed the rout.

It guarantees France's place in the semi-finals prior to their final group game against England, who were beaten 1-0 by Holland despite the presence of Chelsea midfielder Jacob Mellis, who started after an impressive stint as a late sub on Sunday.

In his 83 minutes on the field, Mellis created two decent opportunities for team-mates but neither was converted, meaning Noel Blake's side must beat France if they are to progress into the last four.

Ten-man Italy are still looking for their first goal of the tournament but they did pick up a point with a goalless draw against Croatia.

Fabio Borini once again captained the Italians and went close early on with an effort cleared off the line, but could find no breakthrough, even after the introduction of club colleague Jacopo Sala with 21 minutes remaining.

It meant a clean sheet for Chelsea-bound Croatian goalkeeper Matej Delac, who twice denied forward Mattia Destro, the top scorer in qualifying.

The final round of group games take place on Saturday, when Croatia meet Portugal and Italy take on Spain, who secured a 2-1 win against the Portuguese.