Aston Villa slap £25m price tag on Chelsea target Ashley Young

The Blues have been monitoring Young for some time and are now prepared to make a move as Villa are on the verge of completing a £12m deal for Middlesbrough's Stewart Downing.

Chelsea see the England international, who can play on either wing, as providing competition to Joe Cole, Florent Malouda and Yuri Zhirkov.

Villa insist Young is not for sale but Standard Sport understands they will listen to offers of £25m. That would mark a huge profit for Villa, who paid Watford £9.75m for the midfielder two years ago.

Young has made a big impression in the Midlands and although he feels a lot of loyalty towards manager Martin O'Neill the 23-year-old will find Chelsea hard to resist. The fact he is English makes him an attractive proposition as UEFA now require teams to have eight home-grown players in their Champions League squads.

Tottenham are also very interested in him and have been linked with a £25m bid involving David Bentley. But it is understood Villa are not prepared to sell him to a team who they consider to be one of their close rivals and a threat to their chances of qualifying for Europe next season.

Spurs were also advised it was too late to make a last-minute bid to beat Villa to the signing of winger Downing, who has set his heart on joining O'Neill's side.

Spurs have been after the England international since 2006 and have had numerous negotiations with Middlesbrough since then, but it appears Downing was not prepared to wait for them to make their move this time.

Chelsea depart for their pre-season tour to the USA today increasingly confident that captain John Terry will reject Manchester City's overtures and commit his long-term future to the club.

Terry was significantly involved in the announcement of the club's new sponsorship deal with Samsung yesterday and was pictured in the club shirt and chief executive Peter Kenyon later confirmed they plan to offer him a new deal.

Kenyon said: "We think John Terry epitomises everything that Chelsea is about. I don't think this is about looking at the value of John Terry in terms of what someone is prepared to pay for him. As far as we're concerned, he's not for sale.

"I think he is happy with that. This is about John Terry and the club continuing to work together, extending his contract and doing what he wants to do and what we want him to do, which is finish his career here."

Chelsea have also been boosted by the news that UEFA have reduced the bans handed out to Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa for their behaviour after their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona by one match.

Drogba will now miss three games and pay a £12,800 fine, while Bosingwa will sit out two matches and pay £8,500. Both players also have a further two-game and one-match punishment respectively suspended for three years hanging over them.

Chelsea still have to pay £8,500 for their failure to control their players and for their fans throwing missiles on the pitch.

The club have loaned 19-year-old Slovakia winger Miroslav Stoch to FC Twente for one season.