Chelsea have issued a bid thought to be in the region of 25m (£19.7m) for Real Madrid star Robinho. The Brazilian admitted earlier this week that he'd had talks with the London club, who now appear to have made their interest concrete...

Chelsea have made real their interest in the 24-year-old ace despite the fact that Madrid have proved unable to land Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United.

Received wisdom had it that Robinho was to leave for England when the Portuguese winger came the other way, but with the Ronaldo deal failing to pan out such plans were called into question.

However Robinho, who signed up at the Bernabéu from Santos in 2005, apparently has other ideas. The Brazilian international was said to be tremendously upset at his potentially being used as a bargaining chip in the Ronaldo deal and began to plot his exit from there.

His being refused permission to travel to the Beijing Olympics, ostensibly due to injury, upset him further, with his agent relating that the player was reduced to tears by this development.

In the aftermath of such dramas the mercurial forward told the press that he had spoken to Chelsea and could not rule out a move, even in the wake of media reports that he was to pen a new deal with the blancos.

Further newspaper mumblings today indicate that Madrid coach Bernd Schuster may be willing to part with Robinho, and as such he and sporting director Predrag 'Pedja' Mijatovic will have some serious thinking to do.

The Blues, for their part, are thought to have their heart set on the São Vicente-born ace as their final signing of the summer.