Claudio Ranieri has held summit talks with Ken Bates over the future of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. The Chelsea manager, alarmed at reports that the club were prepared to part with the Dutch striker, sought assurances from his chairman that this would not be the case.
The meeting took place in Ranieri's luxurious villa in Tuscany, near Siena where Bates is believed to be holidaying.
The west London club's financial situation is such that they are believed to be prepared to listen to offers for any member of their squad. They are particularly keen to cash in on their 30-year-old star striker, who scored 23 goals in 35 games last season, because his value will decline as he gets further into his thirties and closer to the end of his contract, which expires in 2005.
Last Wednesday one of Chelsea's appointed transfer- market agents, Vincenzo Morabito, was invited to a meeting at Barcelona's Camp Nou offices with the Catalan club's director general, Javier Perez Farguell. In the meeting the subject of Chelsea's willingness to sell Hasselbaink, who moved to London from Atletico Madrid in June 2000, was the main topic.
Farguell offered the Dutch international right-back Michael Reiziger and about £10m for the centre-forward, who has been a target of the Barcelona manager Louis van Gaal since he rejoined in May.
Morabito made it clear that Chelsea's starting price was £25m and the meeting ended without resolution.
During the World Cup Ranieiri was forced to abandon his long-planned and near-completed moves for Real Madrid's Flavio Conceicao and Geremi on the instructions of his board. He fears that should Hasselbaink be sold he will not be given the entire fee in order to plunder the transfer market for a replacement striker and the midfield reinforcements he is desperately seeking.
When told to pull out of the planned signings from Madrid, Ranieri reportedly said: "It was all fixed with Real but the club rang me and said that we would have to pull out of the deal because we could not afford it.
"I am very sorry about it but we are going through a very difficult period in football and Chelsea can't afford to spend a penny at the moment."
A sense of stagnation is developing around Stamford Bridge, where the only summer signing has been Enrique de Lucas from Espanyol, although even this transfer, a free, is disputed by Alaves, who also thought they had signed him. On Monday, Chelsea sold Sam Dalla Bona to Milan for between £1m and £2m.
Ranieri's frustration at having lost Flavio and Geremi will be tempered by the exchange of his winger Gabriele Ambrosetti for the Lazio midfielder Dino Baggio. The Chelsea board were originally unwilling to sanction the deal because Baggio earns £1m a season more than Ambrosetti, but Baggio, who has 60 caps for Italy, has been prepared to compromise. His agent Claudio Pasqualin said: "Dino likes the idea of playing in England and he is ready to reduce his wages." The exchange could be concluded as early as today.
Above all, Ranieri believes the striking partnership forged between Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen needs to be maintained if the club are to achieve their aim of Champions League football the season after next.
The Chelsea manager had hoped to raise some money by selling Mikael Forssell, the young Finnish striker, with Sunderland the favoured destination. But Forssell underwent knee surgery in the US this summer and will not be available until late autumn at the earliest.
So, unless they can sell some or all of Jesper Gronkjaer, Winston Bogarde, Mark Bosnich, Albert Ferrer or Boudewijn Zenden, the spotlight will turn back to Hasselbaink, plainly their most marketable asset.
If the Dutchman goes he would most likely be replaced by Raul Tamudo, who scored 17 times for Espanyol last season and has made it clear that he wants to leave the club after their coach Paco Flores was sacked.
However good Tamudo is, the loss of Hasselbaink would not make Chelsea's fans happy. It is doubtful whether the manager would be too chuffed either.
