Chelsea will have to close €60m valuation gap if they want 20 year old defender

SportWitness have today got translated reports from A Bola in Portugal claiming that Chelsea have been making attempts to sign Antonio Silva from Benfica.

The 20 year old is an established starter and looks a real talent, but he’s got a €100m release clause and the Lisbon based side aren’t entertaining Chelsea’s offers closer to €60m. They’re in an intense title race, and in a strong position with Silva contractually. Unless we go mad and offer them crazy money as we did with Enzo last year, they’re content to hold out until the summer it seems.

At this stage, we really wouldn’t think that a central defender would be near the top of our list of targets, especially in January.

But we’ve said that before and seen those in charge spend rather surprising sums of money on players in positions we felt we were well stocked in – so we can’t rule anything out.

Competing with Manchester United for a young Benfica star sounds like a shortcut to overspending, however.