Blackburn Rovers last night appeared to be on the verge of losing Irish winger Damien Duff to Chelsea with the London club expected to follow up two unsuccessful bids for the 24-year-old with an £18 million bid that would, under the terms of his contract, oblige the player's current employers to allow him to discuss personal terms.
Blackburn chief executive John Williams confirmed yesterday that the club had already rejected two offers, believed to have been for £12 million and £15 million, from the newly cash-rich Stamford Bridge outfit over the previous day or so.
He went on to admit that the figures involved would not have to be increased substantially if the "release clause" written into Duff's contract last summer was to be triggered.
"Once the release figure is reached then the matter is out of our hands and the decision is Damien's," said Williams.
Duff, who was at the Carlisle Grounds yesterday promoting a friendly between Bray Wanderers and Blackburn scheduled for August 6th, declined to comment on the possible move. His agent, the Wanderers manager Pat Devlin, described it as "hypothetical", but by last night there were reports that Chelsea had already decided to follow up their interest with the higher bid required.
With Ramon Abramovich's money having enabled Chelsea to purchase West Ham full back for £6 million on Thursday and Cameroon international Geremi for £7 million yesterday, the purchase of Duff would bring Chelsea's spending to £30 million in a few days and Rovers could take another £3 million from the Londoners in performance-related bonuses.
It would make Duff, who has scored four goals in 36 international appearance and got 11 in 32 games for Blackburn last season, the most expensive Irish player ever to move clubs with even the lower £17 million fee comfortably eclipsing the £13 million paid by Inter Milan to Leeds for Robbie Keane.
Under present FIFA regulations, Lourdes Celtic - the south Dublin schoolboy club Duff played for until just after his 17th birthday - would have a claim on around £400,000 of the fee.
The deal would presumably please Ireland manager Brian Kerr who, assuming Chelsea make it through the qualifying round, would see his most gifted player getting to play regular Champions League football next season and there is also the possibility that Ranieri would follow Kerr's lead by using Duff in a central position where his creativity would fill the void left by Gianfranco Zola.
It might also have ramifications for another of Kerr's players with the fee involved enabling Graeme Souness to complete a move for Steven Reid that stalled last month over the way in which Rovers wanted to structure the payments. Reid is valued at around £3 million by Millwall and the only fear from the 25-year-old's point of view is that Souness could opt to buy someone in a higher price bracket with the cash taken in for Duff.
James O'Connor has moved to West Brom from Stoke City with the former under-21 international midfielder signing a three-year deal with the first division club. Though O'Connor was out of contract a fee will be set by a tribunal as he is under 23.
And Dennis Irwin will be back playing in the premiership next season after signing a new one-year deal with Wolves. Paul Ince has also signed on with the Molineux club for another 12 months.
Barcelona still believe they can hijack Ronaldinho's proposed move to Manchester United. Barcelona's vice president Sandro Rosell confirmed last night his club have lodged an official bid with Paris SG for the Brazilian - and claimed that Chelsea have too.
Despite claims that the World Cup winner has told his agent and brother Roberto Assis that he prefers to go to Old Trafford, Rosell insists he doesn"t believe that. "We have been to PSG to present them with the offer that we can afford, now we are waiting for their answer," Rosell said.
"The offer is confidential. We have no doubt agreement will be made before the season starts, our season starts in August and we have until the 31st of that month to complete our deals, it could go on as long as that.
"We have talked to his agent and the player is now considering Barcelona, Manchester United and now Chelsea want his services."
And Rosell insists Barcelona not being in the Champions League should not be an issue.
"Champions League is something we will not have this year, but because of the history, size and quality or our club and team we will always be participating in the Champions League. It is only a one-year problem."
Former England striker Les Ferdinand has signed a one-year deal with Leicester City.
And Turkey have confirmed that their European Championship qualifier against England on October 11th will be held at the Fenerbahce stadium in Istanbul.
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