Modric : Levy 'broke agreement' to let me leave Tottenham

zocoss SG

That is almost triple the Croatian's £50,000-a-week White Hart Lane wages.

And the Blues are hoping that their mega-money deal will convince the £15million -rated playmaker to cross the capital.

Chelsea want to add some much-needed flair and creativity to a squad that ended the season empty handed.

The Spurs star, who still has three years on his current contract, is one of their top summer targets along with a right-back and a flying winger.

A Chelsea insider said: "Not having a manager yet won't slow anything down.

"There's a hitlist of players to sign and Modric is right at the top of it."

Blues skipper John Terry is confident new faces will give his side a lift.

Terry said: "We made two fantastic signings in January in Fernando Torres and David Luiz. They have really freshened the club up, and hopefully there will be some more new signings."

charlize SG

They should just get the manager first and then see who the manager wants.

No point getting all sorts of players and then find that the manager can only use half of the players with his system.

As usual, probably Roman is behind the scenes going: I want him, him and him.

Y_Shun SG

#1 get a manager
#2 decide on the style of football to play
#3 get the suitable and capable players to play it

As of the last season... 10/11, I feel Chelsea is playing some rojak football...sometimes direct, some times short passing, sometimes just pass here pass there without a clue, also dont know what they doing.

charlize SG

#1 get a manager
#2 decide on the style of football to play
#3 get the suitable and capable players to play it

What to do?

The owner is calling the shots.

The manager is there to try gel everything together with whoever the owner bought or wants to buy.

I think secretly Roman wants to buy the whole Barca team.

Rooney9 SG

What to do?

The owner is calling the shots.

The manager is there to try gel everything together with whoever the owner bought or wants to buy.

I think secretly Roman wants to buy the whole Barca team.

he might as well buy over the whole barcelona team to play his fanciful football.

charlize SG

he might as well buy over the whole barcelona team to play his fanciful football.

Then where will he play Terry, Lampard, Malouda, Drogba, Torres, Luiz and Modric?

zocoss SG

Well, in Spain and Italy the manager is there just to coach anyway... Nevertheless, it's much better to have an owner who is willing to pour his own millions into the squad than an owner who doesn't want or can't afford to spend right?

The chelsea manager can't have too much to complain when you look at Aston Villa and Birmingham... Or Real and Barcelona for that matter...

Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1) SG

buy modric muz clear ramires,lampard,essien,mikel (anyone) ma

zocoss SG

As long as Lampard is there, Torres or most of their strikers will find it difficult to score I think apart from Drogba... The guy don't create much and likes to go for goal himself leaving the striker a bit short changed... Modric will help Torres game a lot I think.

dragg SG

his current wage is 50k only?

so many rubbish earn much more than him in the epl.

Rock^Star SG

I have reservations about modric. Yes he may thrive for a lesser club but in a higher one.....i have my doubts. His looks like he can be easily muscled off the ball by combative midfielders. His goals ratio are not fantastic too. When I watched the spurs and madrid game 6 weeks back, he was invisible in both legs.

Y_Shun SG

I highly believe Hiddink will continue with the 4-3-3 formation...

There is 3 midfield spaces to fight for...so it probably looks like this:

Lampard/Modric/McEachran, Mikel/Essien, Ramires/Essien.

So Essien IMO is the one who really need to fight hard with Ramires and Mikel to obtain a space in the starting 11.

Lampard is ageing, I think his legs are really getting old, not sure how long more can he last... Hence there is a Modric here to replace him. McEachran the next "Wilshere" is still young and Chelsea probably dont want to put too much pressure on him.

zocoss SG

It looks almost certain that Modric, who cost £16.5m from Dinamo Zagreb in 2008, will now leave White Hart Lane and that Chelsea are favourites to sign him.

Insiders say he wants to stay in London after playing 120 games and scoring 12 goals in three seasons at Spurs.

Abramovich sees Modric as the key to next season's bid to lift the Champions League.

And so determined is he to grab his man that he will outbid United if the Premier League champions decide to go head-to-head with him.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has always insisted Modric will stay at Spurs and that his worth is way in excess of £25m.

But Abramovich is determined to press ahead with his first signing of the close season despite the fact he is yet to appoint a replacement for manager Carlo Ancelotti.

Chelsea's formal bid was rejected by Spurs within two hours but Abramovich is desperate to add more creativity to Chelsea's midfield.

He also wants to reduce the average age of the club's squad and Modric's extra flair and pace have established him as the Blues' No 1 target.

dragg SG

chelsea really jialat.

most, if not all of their players are expensive signings. its time they develop some of their own players.

zocoss SG

Spurs' boss dismissed Chelsea's £22million bid for the midfielder - and told them not to waste their time coming back with more cash.

Redknapp said: "Tottenham are not selling Modric, end of story. I've spoken at length to the chairman Daniel Levy and he said Luka is not for sale. So that's good enough for me.

"Every club in the world would want a player with his ability - but he is ours and that is the way it is staying.

"The offer I heard bandied around for Modric is what is being paid for players who are not even fit to lace his boots."

Chelsea slapped in their £22m offer for Modric on Wednesday.

But Spurs had already made it clear to Manchester United that the 25-year-old would not be leaving White Hart Lane.

And now they have given Chelsea the same uncompormising message.

dragg SG

i am sure modric wants a move.

who'll turn down an offer of 3 times the salary?

zocoss SG

True Blue: Luka Modric has dropped a bombshell on Tottenham by asking to leave

Luka Modric dropped a bombshell on Tottenham when he told Sportsmail he wants to leave White Hart Lane and sign for Chelsea.

The midfielder took the stunning decision to declare his reasons for wanting to join Chelsea, who are preparing a second offer for the Croat in the next 48 hours.

It is an action that will enrage his employers and Spurs supporters, but Modric says he wants to move to a club with ambitions of winning the Barclays Premier League title and is going public to force the issue.

Last night the 25-year-old spoke to Sportsmail from his holiday boat and said: ‘I want to leave Tottenham as friends. I have enjoyed my time there, but now it is right for me to look at another club.

'I have an arrangement with the chairman. When I signed my new contract, he said that, if another club came to sign me, they would consider the offer.’

Stuck in the middle: Modric doesn't want to anger Tottenham fans but is desperate to win trophies

A second Chelsea offer is due - and this time the price will rise from their opening £22million bid to closer to £30m.

And Modric said: ‘Chelsea are a big club with an ambitious owner. They have great players and they have ambitions to fight for the title and win the Champions League.

‘I want to stay in London. I am very happy here and so are my family. I like the city.’

The news will explain why Manchester City and Manchester United have been monitoring and talking, rather than formally bidding. They have clearly got wind of Modric’s desire to stay in London in the last 24 hours, which puts Chelsea in pole position.

‘I don’t want to have an argument with Tottenham,’ said Modric. ‘The supporters have been very good to me and I have enjoyed my time playing for the club, but it is for football that players leave clubs and move. It has happened to Tottenham before. It is normal for a player to dream about playing for a bigger club.’

Modric will speak to Spurs chairman Daniel Levy about arranging the transfer but insists the desire to leave is not about money.

‘If somebody comes to the club and the offer is good for me and acceptable to them, then I want to leave,’ he said. ‘It has to be good for my ambition. It has to be a club who are winning titles and playing in the Champions League.

Taste of the top: Modric has been driven by his desire to play in the Champions League again

‘This is not about money, it is about ambition. When I came to England, I was dreaming about winning titles. That is still the same.

‘Tottenham are a big club, with good players and a good manager, but I want to fight for the championship. Spurs will always have a place in my heart. My experiences in the Champions League have left me with the desire for more.’

When asked what happens next, Modric said: ‘I need to talk with the chairman. I won’t ask for a transfer, no. That would be disrespectful. I hope they can reach an agreement (with another club) that is satisfactory for everyone. I am on holiday, but I need to speak and to see if I can find a solution to this.’

Spurs fans will expect Levy to offer Modric a new contract and keep his word. The chairman has said that he will not allow the player to go, while manager Harry Redknapp described the original Chelsea offer as ‘ridiculous’.

Y_Shun SG

Somehow Chelsea seems to get in touch with Modric already.

Just like the Torres deal.

zocoss SG

To be fair, who wouldn't want to go if you are only earning £40,000 a week currently and on offer just across the road so to speak is £130,000 waiting for you doing exactly the same thing as what you are doing now? Maybe got better chance of winning things somemore...

To borrow Joe cole's words... It's really a no-brainer not to want to go...

I think he should be a good fit at Chelsea and Torres will be a lot happier too...

zocoss SG

Spurs fans understandably described Chelsea's £22million bid for Luka Modric as laughable.

And fee-wise it was. But the timing suggests the Croatian is Roman Abramovich's number one summer target and this was merely an opening gambit. Factor in December's quote from Dynamo Zagreb vice-president, Zdravko Mamic, that his close friend Modric would be heading to Chelsea in the summer, and there's a good chance those Spurs laughs could turn to tears when the bid gets closer to £40million.

If it does, another person to stop smiling could be Frank Lampard. He's already struggling to hang on to his England shirt, is 33 on Monday, and appears to be past his peak. Despite being injured last season he still played 31 games in which he managed only six assists. In the previous two seasons he made 20 and 19.

Chelsea is an ageing team in need of some ruthless decisions. Just as Alex Ferguson had to to let Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes know they had no automatic right to a shirt when they hit 33, so might the next Chelsea boss tell Lampard.

Spending £40milllion on Modric might make the decision a lot easier.