Chelsea ‘in talks’ with Napoli foward

With only Fernando Torres as the established centre-forward at the club, Daniel Sturridge unproven in that position and Romelu Lukaku allowed to go out on loan to West Brom, I would be surprised if Chelsea did not sign another striker this summer.

But who could we sign? The Evening Standard reported that we have agreed a transfer fee with Napoli for Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani but we’ve yet to agree personal terms, as he’s allegedly asking for £150k-a-week which would put him on par with the likes of Frank Lampard and John Terry.

Aurelio de Laurentiis, Napoli’s president, has been quite vocal about Cavani over the summer and had publicly slapped a huge price-tag on the forward but the Evening Standard said the Serie A club will accept an offer closer to the £30 million mark. It was also rumoured that de Laurentiis sent an agent to London to thrash out a deal.

Now both TMW and Calciomercato believe Raul Meireles has been brought into the deal and the Portuguese midfielder could be used in a cash+exchange deal for Cavani but these sorts of deals rarely come off. I’m sure if Napoli will put in a bid for Meireles if they want him but the deals will stay separate.

Cavani had a poor Olympics campaign with Uruguay which may have put some clubs off but his record in Serie A makes for impressive reading as he scored 66 goals in 94 appearances for Napoli. Chelsea are in need of a striker to compete with Torres, could he be the one? I’d prefer someone like Radamel Falcao, personally, but what do you think?

Source: http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-in-talks-with-napoli-striker-edinson-cavani-8030689.html