Chelsea extend Dzeko deadline to Monday amid mixed signals — reports

Predictably, the ‘next 24 hours’ timeframe that was set, well, 24 hours ago, has brought no clarity, let alone a conclusion to Chelsea’s pursuit of Edin Dzeko.

In fact, over the past 24 hours, the rumors have run the full gamut of possibilities, from Sky Sports saying that it’s “unlikely to happen” to Sky Italia saying that “good progress” has been made. Others, like the Telegraph, sit somewhere in-between, which is probably closer to the actual truth. Then again, the source who described the situation as an “unbelievable mess” is probably the only person who’s completely correct.

So what’s the “progress” that the Italians claim has been made? According to Di Marzio, it involves Chelsea giving in to Dzeko’s demands for a longer and richer contract, bettering his current deal at Roma in both respects. That would mean a 3.5-year contract at €5.5m annual wages (£92k per week) plus bonuses. For some reason, changing personal terms also has an affect on the agreement between the two clubs, so there’s further negotiations to be done there. Or perhaps all that is just making sure that the Emerson Palmieri deal completes before the end of the window on Wednesday. (It should be noted that Juventus apparently are once again lurking in the background for Emerson, having previously identified him as the successor to Alex Sandro.)

The total cost of the double deal is still expected to be around €50m + €5-6m add-ons, but whether it actually goes through is anyone’s guess at the moment.

At those numbers however, the deal makes little sense to Chelsea. Meanwhile, Dzeko’s wife is apparently not too keen either and we know how strong such family concerns can be in these situations. They have recently bought a house in Rome and appear quite settled. He’s not going to uproot for anything but an outrageous offer (and that’s before we consider playing time issues and the like).