Chelsea to break the British record for Southampton teenager?

Jose Mourinho is ready to break the British record for a teenager and bid £30 million for Southampton starlet Luke Shaw, according to the Express.

But Chelsea face competition for the left-back’s signature as London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham are also interested in Shaw so the Blues may be forced to act quickly in order to bring him to Stamford Bridge.

The West London club has failed with bids for Shaw in the last two transfer windows but are confident they can do a deal next month by breaking the record for a British player, which is currently held by Manchester United who paid Everton £27 million for Wayne Rooney in 2004.

Shaw grew up as a Chelsea fans and has been mooted as the perfect candidate to replace the ageing Ashley Cole but Saints chairman Nicola Cortese won’t be pushed around as the 18-year-old only recently signed a five-year contract – which is another reason why the asking price is so astronomical.

Southampton have a history in producing talent on their way to bigger things, including Gareth Bale who became the most valuable player in the world in the summer when he moved to Real Madrid and Arsenal duo Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, could Shaw be the next star to emerge from St Mary’s?

Chelsea could definitely do with a new left-back and a home-grown talent would be ideal but they’ll have to think long and hard if that’s the asking price as it would represent quite the risk. There has been talk of offering Ryan Bertrand in a part-exchange deal but even if that is not a possibility I’d hope there would be some way for Mourinho’s side to get the price down a bit.

Do you think Luke Shaw would be the perfect replacement for Ashley Cole and would he be worth the big transfer fee?