Chelsea are looking to bolster their strike department in the January Transfer window and have made Turkish striker Burak Yilmaz as his prime target.
The Blues monitored the situation of the striker in the summer but Turkish club Galatasaray had made it clear that the striker was not for sale. However, the West London club have been linked with a £18 million move for the striker in January, with Gala chairman Unal Aysal has opened the door for Chelsea to take the former Trabzonspor star away for the right price.
“I think, if he wants to go and Chelsea are interested, then of course,” said Aysal at the Leaders in Football conference, as quoted by Goal.com.
“Why not? I favour Turkish players moving to big European clubs. “We haven’t had contact from Chelsea yet. We spoke to Lazio at the end of the summer but the conditions were not satisfactory.”
Chelsea have been left frustrated with the performances of their three strikers, with all of them failing to contribute a single goal in the seven league games so far. On loan to Everton, youngster Romelu Lukaku has been firing all cylinders but Chelsea can only recall him back after the end of the season.
Yilmaz was the top scorer in the Champions League last season along with Cristiano Ronaldo with six goals, while the 28-year-old was last season’s Super Lig top scorer (32 goals in 39 matches) and player of the year too.
According to reports from The Metro, Chelsea will open the bidding at £18m, but are prepared to go to as much as £25m for the Turkish superstar.
It is understood that either of Fernando Torres or Demba Ba could be included as potential make-weights for the deal with The Guardian reports that the Senegal international could go the other way.
Should Chelsea go for Burak Yilmaz in the January window? Let us know your thoughts below…
Add Sportslens to your Google News Feed!
