Italian sources say Chelsea double their bid for top player – face to face meetings today | OneFootball

The rumours about Mike Maignan coming to Chelsea have appeared from nowhere and exploded into a really major story.

When Fabrizio Romano first reported them on Tuesday morning we had to check it wasn’t coming from a fake account. A move for the veteran AC Milan goalkeeper would not only go against our current transfer policy of targeting youngsters and players on cheap wages, it would also contradict the steady stream of briefings coming from people well connected at the club which claimed that we were happy with the selection of keepers we already had.

More detail makes Maignan case more realistic

But as time as gone by, the detail and intensity of the chatter about Maignan has convinced us there’s something to it, and today reports from Italy are really convincing that the interest is very real, even if we don’t yet know how it will work out.

CalcioMercato today claim that new AC Milan manager Max Allegri will try to make Maignan stay with a personal meeting. Meanwhile Milan and Chelsea are planning a “direct contact” in the “next few hours.”

Chelsea €20m bid makes a deal very possible

The talk that Chelsea were only willing to pay €10m which bubbled up yesterday had everyone really annoyed. But this piece claims a much more realistic €20m ceiling from the Blues for the France goalkeeper, whose contract expires in a year’s time.

With Milan wanting €30m, a €10m offer is too far off to work. But at €20m, the sides can find some common ground. As CM say, that gap can be bridged with bonuses. Meanwhile Fabrizio Romano has already said there should be no problem with personal terms.

If that’s the case and the fee can be sorted between the clubs, Allegri has a huge job on his hand persuading Maignan to stay.