Chelsea made bid for Palermo ace - agent

I can't really imagine dealing with Mauricio Zamparini, so fair play to Gustavo Mascardi for being willing to put up with Palermo's mildly lunatic owner. Just like always, Palermo have one of Europe's hottest prospects, and just like always they're asking for a lot of money for him.

At 21, Argentinian forward Paulo Dybala is already terrorising defences, and is looking for a move up from the Sicilians. This is fine for Zamparini, because that means a lot of cash. Having learned his lesson after virtually giving away Edinson Cavani to Napoli a few years ago, the owner's now looking for a king's ransom to let Dybala go, and Chelsea are one of the few clubs who could theoretically afford him.

And as it turns out, the Blues are at least interested enough in Dybala's services to be asking questions. Here's Mascardi on the state of play there:

Juve are in pole position because the boy considers Juve as a good destination, because (Juve general manager Beppe) Marotta is a good friend that has submitted the highest bid for him so far. Zamparini is asking for €40m and it seems to me like a fair price. Chelsea presented an offer a while ago, but it was very low.

Source: Sky Sports.

I think this is about where we should be on Dybala. He's an interesting prospect and we should be keeping an eye on him and hoping to lure him to Stamford Bridge, but he's nowhere near a €40 million player right now and if other clubs are willing to pay it fair play to them. We're pretty well stocked on centre forwards with Diego Costa and Loïc Rémy (and Patrick Bamford, if we so choose), so I'd rather that cash be spent elsewhere.

At this point it seems as though our primary use so far as Zamparini and Mascardi are concerned is to drive up the price for other bidders. Just like always!