Chelsea may or may not have bid €70m for Alex Sandro, who may or may not have agreed

Some semi-conflicting news out of Italy this morning that build on plenty of semi-hopeful noise over the last couple days about Chelsea putting the pressure on Juventus and repeatedly going back in for Alex Sandro.

Last concrete information we heard was from the Guardian who claimed that Chelsea would make a £55m (€63m) bid for the left back last week, while soon after Juve chairman Beppe Marotta acknowledged in an interview that a “substantial” offer (which was mistranslated as “suitable” by more than one outlet) had indeed been received. Marotta did not reveal whether they rejected that one, like they did Chelsea’s previous two (three?) offers, but the assumption was that they didn’t since he didn’t specify it. Marotta did stick to his narrative of not wanting to sell Alex Sandro but also not standing in his way if he does decide he wants to leave.

Since then, various reports have ratcheted Chelsea’s offer amount up to €70m (£61m), and that figure has been widely repeated in both the English and the Italian media. And it’s presumably around this amount that any talks may be ongoing — it’s really only a small leap from €60-63m. But if this morning’s Tuttosport is to be believed, those talks may not be going too well as Juve are standing firm.

At the same time, Corriere della Sera report that Sandro has agreed with Chelsea. Incidentally, this was reported by La Repubblica this time last week as well. Chelsea’s bid at that time was €60m. Now it’s €70m. If we believe these reports, Alex Sandro just keeps saying yes, which would put the ball in Juventus’ court, which would then test their claims of letting the player actually go.

I suppose we might actually see some real positive development happen here in the next few days. Or we’re just going to keep on churning through these increasingly desperate attempts to guess at what actually may be going on with this thing.