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Chelsea are determined not to get involved in a bidding war with Real Madrid over Bayern Munich star Franck Ribery in January.
The club are still weighing up whether they will try to make another attempt to sign the France international, who was their No1 target last summer.
Bayern rejected bids from Chelsea and Real Madrid in the off-season but may sell Ribery in the new year as he is refusing to sign a new deal and has been unsettled by all the speculation.
The German club claimed they had turned down an offer of £58.5million plus Jose Bosingwa from Chelsea for the 26-year-old in the summer but sources suggest it never got that high. It is understood Chelsea made a bid in the region of £40m and are not prepared to go much higher.
Ribery's first choice has always been Madrid and they remain the favourites because they are prepared to pay a lot more, although they would prefer to wait until next summer to buy him.
Chelsea received a boost ahead of their Champions League match at Porto tomorrow after Michael Ballack, Deco and Didier Drogba came through training yesterday unscathed following injury.
Reader views (7)
it is better to play along side national teammate like anelka malouda
- Dawood Idris, nigeria west africa
Totally agree with the comments made! A big fee (Ribery is wildly overpriced!) does not guarantee success on the field, surely we must have learned something from the Shevchenko debacle! With the young players we have got coming on, do we need him at that price?
- Kevin Sullivan, Roehampton, London
Brian - Stoch does look good + a Marquee striker (Villa, Pato and or Aguero) and Carlo is on hs way to building a team and squad every bit as good if not better than any under Mourinho´s tenure - UP THE BLUES!
- Melly, Cartagena, Colombia
40 mill plus for ribery is robbery - roman has been rumbled too many times to know that.
- Mark, london uk
Absolutely agree not worth more than 30 million. Another way to get loved is by staying away from all these overpriced players. I believe Miroslav Stoch can do an equally good job over time. Stay with the youths.
- Brian, Cally
Melly, absolutely agree. Any one of the other three you mention would be great. With Kakuta, Borini, Sturridge etc ready in waiting, Chelsea are in a good place right now. If they (CFC) want a player in the Ribery mould, how about young Adam Johnson at Middlebrough ? A lot less money, done it in the Premiership and only 22.
- Charlie, Nr. Crackpot, North Yorkshire
World class player but totally agree not worth over 40 million - if they push for more stay with Malouda (+ Zhirkov as back up), then put the money into other parts of the team - Aguero, Pato or Villa (Valencia).
- Melly, Cartagena, Colombia
