On Tuesday morning, we covered three different Portuguese newspapers speaking of Chelsea interest in Porto winger Pepê, claiming that the Blues had made exploratory contact to know about the chances of signing the 25-year-old.
For those who missed those stories, here’s outlet Correio da Manhã today backing up the claims, and explaining how hard it will be to take the Brazilian away from the Dragons this summer.
The newspaper writes that following the rumours about interest from other Premier League sides, it’s really Chelsea who were the most recent club to ‘ask about the conditions for a sale’.
Porto, however, made it clear there’s no intention to let Pepê go, and according to Correio da Manhã, the Dragons will ‘only speak’ to clubs who trigger his €70m release clause.
It’s said the Portuguese side already lost enough players this year. Manager Sérgio Conceição spoke to the board about that, and they understood that his squad shouldn’t be further weakened in the final days of the transfer window. Especially because they see the winger as a ‘nuclear player’ who can offer ‘solutions on the pitch and always with quality’.So if Chelsea are really focused on landing the winger, they should either trigger the release clause or end up empty-handed.
