Transfer news:Chelsea yesterday lodged a £12 million bid with Lyon for the France winger Florent Malouda, according to reports in the French press. It suggests that Arjen Robben's stay at Stamford Bridge is coming to a close.
The Dutchman is Real Madrid's principal target after they lost out to Barcelona in the contest to sign Thierry Henry. Chelsea have offered Robben a new contract but he is understood to favour a move to the Bernabeu, where he would link up with his international team-mate Ruud van Nistelrooy.
"We are in talks with Chelsea and the player and we hope to sign him," Madrid's president, Ramon Calderon, said this month. "Bringing Robben was one of my pledges when I was running for president and it still remains the case."
Robben's father and representative, Hans Robben, denied that there had been any such talks and nothing has been agreed.
The 23-year-old recently married and has been on honeymoon but Chelsea seem to be building towards a future without the player they signed for £12 million from PSV Eindhoven three years ago.
Malouda is a former club-mate of Didier Drogba at Guingamp and the Ivorian recently said he would "walk to Lyon" to bring the 27-year-old Frenchman to Chelsea.
Arsenal and Liverpool are also interested in Malouda but are not likely to enter an auction with Chelsea, and the size of the reported bid suggests the London club are seeking to set a high bar in initial discussions.
Lyon have said they would not sell him for less than £17 million but Chelsea could expect to raise a similar sum from the sale of Robben, allowing the relatively rare luxury of a cash buy.
Robben's spell with the FA Cup holders has been plagued by injury - he has made only 51 Premiership starts in three full seasons - leading to a rift with the manager, Jose Mourinho, over his work ethic. Despite Mourinho's recent attempts at rapprochement the two men are no closer and Robben sees his future overseas.
If Chelsea are able to agree a fee with Lyon, Malouda will be their fourth summer signing, following Steve Sidwell, from Reading, Claudio Pizarro from Bayern Munich and Tal Ben Haim from Bolton Wanderers, all on Bosman transfers.
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid supremo Miguel Angel Gil Marin is hoping star striker Fernando Torres will remain at the club, but insists that no player is indispensable. Torres is being linked with a move to Liverpool, with a transfer fee of around £25 million being mooted for the 23-year-old Spain international.
Gil Marin, Atletico's major shareholder, wants to see Torres leading Atletico's attack again next season, but is adamant that the striker is not irreplaceable.
"Nobody is indispensable. We are trying to create a competitive team and no player by himself, very good though he is, is able to make a team achieve its aims," Gil Marin said.
Jermain Defoe would welcome fresh assurances about his future at Tottenham Hotspur following the club's pursuit of the Charlton striker Darren Bent. Despite scoring 18 goals last season, Defoe was often below Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane in the pecking order and faces the possibility of becoming the club's fourth-choice striker.
Defoe is keen to remain at Spurs but fears that he is no longer central to Martin Jol's first-team plans. At 24, he is only one year older than Bent and is an established England international. He has attracted the interest this summer of Portsmouth but it is believed that he would prefer to stay and fight for his place at White Hart Lane rather than move to a club that is not involved in European competition.
With Defoe and other strikers including Frederic Kanoute, David Nugent and Craig Bellamy costing more than Harry Redknapp is willing to pay, the Portsmouth manager has turned his attention to West Ham's Marlon Harewood. "I like him - he's strong, quick and powerful," said Redknapp. "He's not really expensive, just above £3 million is not crazy money. It looks real value."
Guardian Service
