London: Gary Cahill's move to Chelsea is under threat because of the player's personal demands of a 100,000 pounds-a-week contract and 4 million pounds signing-on fee, Goal.com can disclose.
The England international is also unhappy that Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas portrayed him as greedy by revealing that the club and Cahill were "miles apart" on the matter of personal terms.
Goal.com understands that the central defender, who is regarded as cautious by nature, could even walk away from the move, even though Bolton Wanderers agreed a 7 million pound fee last week and gave the player permission to talk to the London club.
Only a single meeting to discuss terms has been held, during which Cahill's representatives explained their salary demands of 100,000 pounds a week, supplemented by a 4 million pounds signing-on fee. The Cahill camp believe this is reasonable given his pedigree and the saving Chelsea are making on a player who has only six months remaining on his current contract.
Chelsea offered a deal that is only a relatively small increase on his 45,000 pounds-a-week Bolton wage and a signing-on fee understood to be "considerably lower" than he wants, which has prompted concern among Cahill and his advisers about how much the west Londoners really want to sign him.
Cahill knows that he will be in a stronger bargaining position in the summer and is believed to be prepared to sit it out at Bolton until that point.
He has had a topsy-turvy season but scored the winning goal for Owen Coyle's team in their surprise 2-1 victory at Everton on Wednesday night, after which his manager said: "I don't know if this will be Gary Cahill's farewell. The clubs have agreed a fee. Gary's representatives and Chelsea have only had one meeting about personal terms."
Chelsea remain confident they are in pole position to land Cahill, especially given the lack of interest in the player from the big six Premier League clubs.
Tottenham have not rekindled the interest they had in the final day of last summer's window, when they made a 13 million pounds bid for the centre-back, and Arsenal are no longer in the running after holding talks with Bolton six months ago.
The player's wage demands mean Spurs are unlikely to re-enter the race, which could give Liverpool an opportunity to rival Chelsea for the player’s signature.
Comments
0 comment