A desire to play in the Champions League is believed to be behind Ronaldo’s intention to leave Old Trafford and the likes of Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Napoli have also been linked with the player. United are likely to be more open to selling to an overseas club. With Ronaldo’s future unlikely to be clarified quickly, Chelsea will continue to prioritize moves for their confirmed targets, such as Sterling who the club hope to make significant progress this week. After positive talks at the end of last week, Chelsea hope to agree a fee, likely to exceed £45m, and personal terms with Sterling in time for him to join Tuchel’s squad on their pre-season tour club in America, which they are leaving for this weekend. Chelsea would ideally like to sign two new players before the tour, with the club still trying to land a central defender alongside Sterling until the end of this week. There have been talks with Matthijs de Ligt, Nathan Ake, Jules Kounde, Presnel Kimpembe and Kalidou Koulibaly, with Chelsea needing to sign at least two new defenders this summer. Reports from Germany claim that Bayern Munich have made their own approach to Juventus for De Ligt. Chelsea also have a £55m bid, plus add-ons, on the table for Rafinha, who is understood to favor a move to Barcelona. Sources in Spain have said that if they cannot afford Chelsea’s bid this summer, then Barca could encourage the Brazilian to stay at Leeds United until January with the promise of an offer then. Having offered personal terms that are broadly acceptable to Rafinha, it remains to be seen how long Chelsea will keep their offer on the table if there continues to be no response from the player’s end.
