Palermo's attacking midfielder Javier Pastore could soon be on his way to Stamford Bridge after their vice president Guglielmo Micciche told an Italian radio station that the player was "very likely" to join the Blues.
The 22-year-old Argentine playmaker has attracted a lot of interest from several major European clubs this summer, but Palermo's reluctance to let him go for less than a reported £39.7 million has meant that his future remains unsolved.
Pastore won the 2010 Serie A Young Player of the Year award and has already made nine appearances for his country. He helped his side qualify for this season's Europa League by finishing fifth in the league last campaign, with Pastore scoring 11 goals.
According to Micciche, negotiations are "well advanced" with Chelsea and so a deal could be completed in the next week. Manchester City and Roma, among other clubs, are also rumoured to be interested in securing Pastore's signature, and they may well make a move to try and halt the Blues' progress.
If Pastore's proposed move does go through, it may well mean that Chelsea stop pursuing Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric. In what has been one of the transfer sagas of the summer, Modric has declared his intention to leave White Hart Lane on several occasions, however, Spurs have been reluctant to sell their creative midfielder and value him far higher than Chelsea's recent £27 million bid.
The signing of Pastore will certainly not be cheap if it is anywhere near the £39.7 million asking price, and given that he should provide the creativity in midfield that the Blues lack, it is unlikely that a second big-money move for a player in this position would go ahead.
A deal worth around £5 million for Barcelona's 19-year-old defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu has been reached in the last few days by Chelsea as he looks set to become the club's first summer signing, but it has been an unusually quiet transfer window so far at Stamford Bridge, despite newspaper reports that owner Roman Abramovich was ready to let a number of older players leave so he could bring in younger talent.
What is certain is that Chelsea will not want to be left behind by their rivals as Manchester United have already brought in three players for a combined fee of around £50 million. Could Pastore be Abramovich's first big money move?
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/777512-chelsea-transfer-news-blues-favourites-to-sign-pastore
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