Chelsea and City in battle for ‘New Pogba’

Chelsea and Manchester City are reportedly in a tug-of-war for Ilaix Moriba who is dubbed the ‘New Pogba’ by his teammates.

The Barcelona youngster is yet to sign a professional contract with the Catalans due to his age and that has provided Chelsea and Manchester City great chance to prise him out of La Masia academy this not month.

We reported here last night, that Abramovich was in Spain to negotiate a deal with the La Liga giants for the 16-year-old playmaker and we understood that the talks went well.

Despite the positive outcome of the negotiations between Josep Bartomeu (Barcelona’s president) and Roman Abramovich (Chelsea owner), coach Ernesto Valverde is reluctant to let go of the highly-talented youngster.

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The manager wants his employers to offer Moriba his first professional contract so as to tie him to Camp Nou for more seasons.

Irrespective of Valverde’s call, Barcelona are set to release the youngster after receiving a mouthwatering offer from the West London outfits.

City were believed to be leading the race for his signature, however, the Cityzens couldn’t pay the player’s price tag, thereby offering the Blues great chance to reach an agreement with the Barcelona.

Should the playmaker move to Stamford Bridge this week, he might fail to feature for the main squad until next season when he will be loaned out to any interested suitor so as to experience regular first-team action.