Chelsea have turned their attention to signing Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery after missing out on Kaka.
Chelsea have conceded defeat in their pursuit of Kaka with the Brazilian due to be confirmed as a Real Madrid player for a world record £56.2m on Monday, leaving the Premier League club's attention fixed on Bayern Munich's Franck Ribéry and David Villa of Valencia as they attempt a marquee summer signing of their own.
Kaka, who is in Brazil preparing for his country's forthcoming World Cup qualifiers, is understood to have agreed terms with Real and, just as significantly, the Spanish club have agreed a commission fee with the player's father and agent, Bosco Leite. There were reports that Chelsea had formalised their long-standing interest with a £73.5m bid but the London club issued a statement denying any offer had been made.
It is understood that Kaka, despite his public utterances, had actually informed team-mates at Milan by late on Tuesday night that he is to leave the club for Madrid to become the returning president Florentino Pérez's first eye-catching signing of his second spell in charge.
The prospect of missing out on the former world player of the year will come as a blow for the new Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti, who worked with Kaka at San Siro, but also to the club's owner, Roman Abramovich. Yet their interest serves as a statement of intent that the oligarch is prepared to spend heavily this summer in a throwback to the lavish first few years at Stamford Bridge.
There is interest in Milan's young Brazilian striker, Alexandre Pato, though the Rossoneri will be resistant to selling another of their younger attacking players. Pato himself said today that he wished to remain at Milan.
Instead, Chelsea are likely to focus their attentions on Villa and Ribéry, who had been expected to favour a move to Real should he leave Bayern Munich. Now that the Spanish club have secured Kaka, and with interest in Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo maintained, the France international appears less of an obvious option. Ancelotti expressed his admiration for the 26-year-old in his autobiography, published last week, and has been in regular contact with Chelsea's head of youth development and scouting, Frank Arnesen, in recent days. The new manager is believed to have visited Cobham for the first time today.
Bayern, too, will be resistant to losing their creative inspiration. Their general manager, Uli Hoeness, has discussed Ribéry's future with the club's new coach, Louis van Gaal, and stressed today that the player is not for sale. "Van Gaal really wants to keep him," he said. "We will not let Ribéry go. There will be inquiries for Ribéry in the next four to six weeks, I'm sure. We will be polite but we will not negotiate. We are not going to celebrate on the telephone when somebody offers a certain amount."
The pursuit of Villa is just as complicated. The striker is likely to be made available by Valencia, who are heavily in debt and failed to qualify for the Champions League, yet he has made no secret of his desire to remain in Spain. Much may depend upon whether Barcelona lodge a bid for his services. Chelsea are pursuing other targets just as wholeheartedly, with the teenage Manchester City striker Daniel Sturridge, a free agent having failed to agree a new contract at Eastlands, expected to join along with the CSKA Moscow midfielder Yuri Zhirkov, who can also play at left-back. The club's interest in Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor is unlikely to be followed up, however, after they offered Didier Drogba a new three-year contract to remain at Stamford Bridge.
Another of Chelsea's stalwart players, Ricardo Carvalho, is expected to rejoin Jose Mourinho at Internazionale after confirming that he is "open to offers" to leave London after five years. The prospects of Ancelotti being accompanied by his assistant at San Siro, Filippo Galli, appeared to be receding tonight with the Italian considering a proposal to remain at Milan on improved terms.
