Chelsea bid £27m for Leicester City dynamo N’Golo Kante

Chelsea have made a £27m offer for Leicester City's N'Golo Kante and are refusing to sanction the sale of Nemanja Matic to Juventus before they know if their pursuit of the France international will be successful.

The Premier League champions are desperate to hold on to Kante and have offered him a new improved contract but the player is open to a move to join up with Antonio Conte at Stamford Bridge.

Kante signed a four-year deal at Leicester when joining from Caen for £5.6m last summer. The new deal would extend that deal by a year and significantly improve his salary.

Chelsea’s offer of £27m plus £3m in add-ons is likely to be rejected by Leicester. It then remains to be seen how much they are prepared to raise their bid by and how hard the player pushes for a move.

Matic’s future, meanwhile, is up in the air until a decision is reached on Kante. Juventus made an inquiry for the Serbia midfielder on Wednesday but were told that he is staying at the club until they have signed another central midfielder.

Conte has so far signed the Marseille forward Michy Batshuayi and wants to bring Roma's Radja Nainggolan and Real Madrid's Alvaro Morata to Chelsea as well.

Guardian services