Chelsea set to improve offer for Neymar
Chelsea are set to step up their chase for young Brazil striker Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior after having an initial offer rejected by his club Santos.
The English Premier League champions are reportedly ready to make an improvement on the previous bid, which was believed to be around £17m, but they have no intention of meeting the £29.6m buy-out fee stipulated in the 18-year-old forward’s deal.
While Chelsea have been trying to recruit the youngster all summer and Neymar is keen on a switch to London, Santos are not willing sellers and were set to report the EPL club to FIFA after what they believed to be an illegal approach for the player.
Although a move to Chelsea would make the teenager a very rich young man – they are reportedly set to offer him a five-year contract worth around £55,000 per week – Neymar would expect to be playing first-team football on a regular basis. That might be too big of a demand of manager Carlo Ancelotti, who will also have to keep Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka happy.
Wants first-team football
Neymar told reporters that he would not be willing to give up playing regularly for a championship-chasing team like Santos to sit on the bench at any other club. He said that: "I don't know if I will stay or go but I don't want to leave a championship team like Santos to be put in the reserves at Chelsea or any other foreign team. It would be better to stay. I will take the advice of Mano (Menezes, the Brazil coach) into consideration before making my decision."
The striker has an astonishing scoring record of 32 goals in 34 games for Santos in the 2010 season so far, including five in one match. He made his debut for the Brazil national team last week and scored the opener in a 2-0 win over the United States in a friendly.
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