Hulk pursuit over?

Chelsea could be out of the race to sign Brazilian forward Hulk as they are not prepared to meet Porto’s high valuation of the player, is this the end to the saga?

We have been heavily linked with a move for the 26-year-old since the arrival of Andre Villas-Boas last summer and it seemed as though our interest hasn’t wavered since he was dismissed in March of this year, but Porto’s alleged £60 million valuation may have beaten us and it looks as though we won’t be held to ransom.

ESPN quoted a source that suggested we were never willing to meet Porto’s expectations and as a result we haven’t even entered negotiations, whilst Setanta have said that even mega-rich PSG aren’t willing to meet the fee.

“I have not heard about a bid from Zenit, but at £40 million I cannot see Porto selling.

“I know Chelsea have been linked with Hulk all summer, in fact all year. But Chelsea have never negotiated. Chelsea know the price and are not prepared to even negotiate around those sort of figures.”

For me, this seems a similar situation to the one we faced last summer when Luka Modric wanted to leave Tottenham and went as far as going public but Spurs set a high asking price that we weren’t going to meet (and they’re trying the same trick on Real Madrid this summer). It feels as though this one is done and we’re to move on, but will we go for another player that can play on the right as well as deputising as a centre-forward? I hope so, as Fernando Torres still doesn’t inspire confidence and is Daniel Sturridge good enough backup? I guess we will find out the answers to these questions soon enough.

Do you think the Hulk pursuit is over?

Source: http://www.setanta.com/ie/Articles/2012/08/08/Striker-interest-collapses/gnid-150199/?