Chelsea confident ahead of Sancho transfer battle with United

The Blues will go head to head with their Premier League rivals for the Borussia Dortmund star as other clubs watch on from afar

Chelsea are ready to break their transfer record in the pursuit of Borussia Dortmund’s wantaway forward Jadon Sancho and are confident about their chances of landing him ahead of Manchester United either in January or next summer.

The Blues are pressing ahead with transfer plans, despite their current ban on signing players, with a Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] appeal verdict due any day, and are willing to pay more than the £72 million they stumped up to capture goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga from Athletic Club last year.

Sancho enjoys a close relationship with a number of Chelsea players, including England team-mates Tammy Abraham and Callum Hudson-Odoi, and hails from London.

He is understood to be ready to leave Dortmund after enduring a turbulent start to the Bundesliga season as, although Sancho’s output has remained high, he has been hit with disciplinary sanctions this term.

The 19-year-old was pulled from a league match against Bayern Munich after only 36 minutes, with coach Lucien Favre slamming the player as “not good enough” and last week Sancho was dropped from the starting line-up to face Barcelona in the Champions League after reporting late for a pre-game team meeting. Favre said after the game that he needed “focused players” for the fixture, which Dortmund lost 3-1.