Di Matteo confirms Moses interest

Victor Moses

Roberto Di Matteo has revealed Chelsea are in talks with Wigan in a bid to sign Nigeria forward Victor Moses. This is the first official comment from any member of the Chelsea hierarchy since chase for the winger became public.

 Wigan chairman Dave Whelan claimed earlier this week that he had rejected a bid from Chelsea for Moses because it failed to match £10m (€12.7m, $15.6m) valuation of the 21-year-old.

And Blues manager Di Matteo has now confirmed the European champions are keen to complete a deal for the highly-rated former Crystal Palace player, who will be out of contract at the end of this coming season.

Di Matteo, currently in the United States with Chelsea for their pre-season tour, told skysports.com, “It’s something that the clubs are discussing but at the moment he is a Wigan player.

“He had a good season last season; he is young and an interesting prospect.”

On Wednesday Whelan claimed that he had rejected a third Chelsea bid for the player after again urging the Nigerian to stay after being linked with a summer move to several fellow Premier League clubs with Chelsea and Arsenal being the most prominent.Chelsea’s initial offer of £3.5m was quickly turned down by the Latics. Whelan has said he is prepared to listen to any further offers for Moses, but is not giving up hope that he can persuade the attacker to stay with Roberto Martinez’s side for at least another season.”They’ve made three bids and we’ve not accepted any,” said Whelan in The Sun. “We’re still hoping that he signs an extended deal.They’ve all come in the last three weeks, but they’ve not offered enough. I don’t know if they’ll bid again, but if they do we always listen. And if it is what Roberto believes he is worth then we will take it from there. If the lad had any brains he’d stay under Roberto for another year or so.”Di Matteo also wants to speak to French winger Florent Malouda over his future this week. Ivorian attacker Salomon Kalou was apparently cleared to pave way for Moses.

 Malouda, 32-year-old is entering the final year of his contract with Chelsea and had been linked with a move to Brazilian club Santos but that deal has reportedly fallen through.

“Florent is back with us now and I will have a talk with him this week,” Di Matteo said. “We cannot name more than 25 players in the squad so we will have to make some decisions.”