CHELSEA hopes to make Demba Ba its first signing of the January transfer window as the club looks to trigger the $11.6m release clause in the forward's contract that would allow him to leave Newcastle.
Chelsea officials met Ba's agent yesterday after Rafael Benitez identified the 27-year-old Senegal striker as a potential recruit to bolster a squad that he believes is in need of reinforcements if a title challenge is to be maintained.
A 2-1 win over Everton at Goodison Park yesterday allowed Chelsea to move to within 11 points of Manchester United with a game in hand. But it was once again reliant on Frank Lampard, who scored a goal in each half to earn the victory.
Given his position as interim manager, Benitez was not able to confirm that Ba is a target, nor could he offer any indication that Lampard will be offered a new contract even though the midfielder will be able to open negotiations with rival clubs today when his present deal enters its final six months.
"We do not talk about our business in public," Benitez said. "My job is to prepare the team for games and they will let me know. Ba plays for another team, so I do not like to talk about it."
Benitez praised Lampard after he scored the 191st and 192nd goals of his Chelsea career, taking him to within one goal of Kerry Dixon, who is second on Chelsea's all-time leading scorers list.
Asked if he knows what the new year will bring, the 34-year-old England midfielder replied:
"No. I just hope it brings for me playing in a winning team. I keep trying to give my best, as I've always done when I'm here."
Benitez's immediate priority is to sign an attacking player, particularly with Daniel Sturridge on the verge of completing a pound stg. 12m transfer to Liverpool. Fernando Torres laboured against Everton, having started in all but one of Chelsea's league games this season. And Benitez is hoping that should the move for Ba come to fruition, he will at least have the option of playing two up front or resting his fellow Spaniard.
Newcastle is understood to have received informal expressions of interest in Ba from Chelsea and other clubs, but nothing more. And the pound stg. 7.5m escape clause, of which the player is due to receive a significant proportion, is still to be met.
Having failed to reach agreement with the forward on an extension to the three-year deal he signed in June 2011, one that would have removed the clause, Newcastle is preparing for life without Ba, who has been demanding a contract worth more than pound stg. 80,000 a week over four years.
THE TIMES
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