Chelsea Offer Sheva To Roma

It had seemed as though Shevchenko, who has had a miserable two years at Chelsea since arriving from Milan for €45m in 2006, was set to re-join his old club on a one-year loan deal.

The basis of the move was believed to have already been agreed upon, but it then emerged yesterday that the transfer had collapsed after Chelsea refused to release the player on loan, with an option to make the move permanent.

The Londoners made it clear to Milan that they will only offload Shevchenko if Milan buy him outright. With the Rossoneri unwilling to consider such a proposal, Sheva’s hopes of re-joining the Diavoli have all but disappeared.

Chelsea are still desperate to offload Shevchenko, who is surplus to requirements and is pushing up the wage bill. The Corriere claims that Roman Abramovich has now offered the Ukrainian to another Italian club – Roma.

The Giallorossi, having captured Real Madrid’s Julio Baptista last week, are well known to be in the market for one more offensive based player.

Despite Chelsea’s proposal, it seems unlikely that Roma will be able to afford Sheva’s wages, so unless the 32-year-old takes a big salary cut, a deal is unlikely at this stage.

Monaco’s Jermey Menez is the current favourite with many to fill the offensive void in Roma’s squad before the end of the transfer window.

Alessio Alexis