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Chelsea are set to step up their efforts to sign Ashley Young but will have to bid £25million to prise the winger from Aston Villa.
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.
Reader views (12)
Andrew from Brum - if you despise London and its occupants so much, why contribute to the pages of its major paper?
Speaking as a Chelsea fan who happily managed to escape from Birmingham, I don't want any player from the Sewage Works in my team. And as my Birmingham supporting nephew would say - SOTV!
- Blue Baby, London
Ashley Young would be a fantastic signing for chelsea, its good to finally see the big teams showing interest in young english talent.
so 'Andrew Brum' hates london?...typical stupid comment from another silly northerner...how many people come to england from abroad to visit birmingham compared to london? London is the capital for a reason, it is far better, classier,superior citizens. this is the reason the olympic games is in 'London 2012' and not 'birmingham 2010', because no one would want to go there.
- James Hartson, london
i honestly think if the lad apprecites his talent then chelsea is the club to go to.At Villa he is a big fish in a very small pond.
- Sayi, lusaka zambia
Again a player who is not worth the asking price. Salary caps needs to be enforced, this will stop the crazy-ness, just look at Real Madrid this year, and Blatter has the cheek to blame the premiership for the transfer madness.
- Dirk Diggler, Soho, London
How good it is to see Chelsea FC still trying to improve their squad, with regards to SWP he was not tall enough to cut the mustard in the "top two."
Ridgewell went to blue, Barry gone to Blue and now Ashley will be a blue and we be welcomed with big cockney arms.
- Mad Cow, IOW
Why in God's name would Ashley Young consider a move to Spurs? There's no good reason whatsoever. THAT is why Villa will not be entertaining any bids from WHL, because it would be a complete waste of everyone's time.
- Chris, London
The only way Young will go to Chelsea is if they through in Carvalho and Deco as part of the deal
- John, Birmingham
Three words of advice to young Ashley:
"Shaun Wright-Phillips"
- Chris, Watford, UK
More rumours, more rubbish. So far Ashley has been supposedly going to Barcelona, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and even Tottenham (lol). After losing Laursen to injury and Barry to Man City, there is no way he is going to sell Young when we've got a small squad, want to improve upon last season and Europa Cup to think about.
- James, Bham, England
But maybe he has desire to win something ?
- Clive Waite, Bath,UK
Yeah, absolute tosh to be honest. he has four years left - and O'Neill has proved before he can stand tough against teams trying to poach his players.
Classic rubbish London rags filling its Cock-a-ney-centric pages with cock-a-ney feel good stories.
I hate london!!
- Andrew, Brum
Add another £10 million and you might, just might persuade Lerner and MON. But i think you'll find that he is going no where and you prejudice london garbo press need to stop reporting utter rubbish. makes no sense to sell anyone for Villa with the size of our squad.
- Phillip Carvell, Aston, England.
