Chelsea prepare January bid for Fellaini

Chelsea will offer more than £20million in a bid to sign Marouane Fellaini from Everton next month.

The Belgium international is facing a lengthy ban from the Football Association after head-butting Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross during three-off-the-ball incidents on Saturday.

But Chelsea had already decided to make a move for Fellaini (above) before that game and will pursue their interest in the 25-year-old, who they see as key to strengthening their weak midfield.

Despite signing a five-year contract 13 months ago, Fellaini has already intimated he expects to move in 2013 and although Everton will do all they can to keep him, the Blues are ready to weigh in with a big offer while Arsenal are also watching developments.

Fellaini is one of three players, along with forwards Radamel Falcao and Theo Walcott, who Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is prepared to spend heavily on next month to ensure his club’s campaign does not go into freefall.

The Blues arrived back from Japan today following their 1-0 defeat in the FIFA Club World Cup Final to ­Corinthians yesterday.

It is the fourth trophy the club have lost out on this season following defeats in the Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup and their exit from the Champions League this month, when they became the first holders to fail to make it out of the group stages.

And although Chelsea are third in the Premier League they trail leaders Manchester United by 13 points with a game in hand.

Abramovich has conceded the squad are not strong enough to compete for silverware and will now do his utmost to sign his three main targets.

Falcao, who scored his 17th League goal of the season in Atletico Madrid’s 4-1 defeat at Barcelona last night, has a £48m release clause in his contract but Abramovich is prepared to pay it and sanction a huge salary of around £175,000-a-week to convince him to move to Stamford Bridge.

Walcott is no closer to signing a new deal at Arsenal even though his current agreement expires in the summer and will be the subject of a £15m bid from the Blues.

Chelsea face a fight to convince all three clubs to sell in January but Abramovich wants to send out a real signal of intent to their rivals.

Any new arrivals will come too late to help them over the busy Christmas period though, starting with the quarter-final of the Capital One Cup against Leeds on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, Corinthians midfielder Paulinho has confirmed he will not be part of Chelsea’s spending spree.

The Brazil international has been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge as a possible long-term replacement for Frank Lampard, who is expected to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season. But after helping his side defeat Chelsea, Paulinho said: “I’m staying at Corinthians.

“There were lots of rumours that I could possibly leave the club, that there are talks, but I have never been aware of anything concrete, apart from Inter Milan, which everyone knows about.

“The more titles you win, the more you want to win. That’s what everyone says, and I say that too.”

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Source: EveningStandard