London: Chelsea are willing to pay a club record £60 million (Dh285 million) to land Juventus left-back Alex Sandro after fresh talks on Monday. The Italian club are keen to offer the defender a new contract to stay in Italy, but Chelsea are prepared to better any offer and meet the valuation placed on the 26-year-old.

Chelsea are still waiting to hear whether the player will tell Juventus that he wants to move to England. Paris St-Germain are also interested. Should Chelsea complete a pounds 60 million deal for Sandro, then it will eclipse the pounds 50 million they paid for Fernando Torres in 2011, although Chelsea are aiming to break their transfer record twice this summer.

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has told the club that they must re-sign Romelu Lukaku at any price — even if it means meeting Everton’s pounds 100 million valuation. Having told Diego Costa he is not part of his plans by text message, Conte is desperate to land Lukaku and is confident the 24-year-old can live up to any price tag.

Conte tried to sign Lukaku for Juventus during the Belgian’s first spell at Chelsea and believes he perfectly fits into his favoured systems of play Chelsea are in negotiations with Atletico Madrid regarding a return to Spain for Costa and are expected to step up their bid to sign Lukaku soon.

Everton have valued Lukaku at pounds 100 million, insisting they will not accept any less but that has not scared off Conte, who has made it clear to Chelsea that he wants the player at any cost.

Swansea City manager Paul Clement is keen to make the most of the pre-season training of his Premier League club which began on Monday.

Clement had no time for preparation last season as he joined Swansea in January with the club languishing at the bottom of the league table. He led them to four wins in their last five matches to secure a 15th placed finish.

“It’s the start of five weeks of vital preparation time — something I didn’t have when I first arrived at the club in January,” Clement was cited as saying on the club’s website. (www.swanseacity.com) “We finished the season playing really well,” Clement added.

“Now we must look to take that momentum into the new campaign.” Swansea face League Two side Barnet in their first pre-season match on July 12.

— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2017