Chelsea make first move to beat Spurs to Cahill

The Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas looks set to follow John Terry’s advice and will be making the first move in the race to take Bolton’s Gary Cahill to Stamford Bridge.

Both Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp and the Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger made bids for Cahill in the summer, but now it seems that Chelsea are the hot favourites over Arsenal and Spurs to sign the England international.

Having kept just two clean sheets so far this season, Villas-Boas is aware that Chelsea needs a big defender to help John Terry at the back, and the Mail reports that the Blues will make a £7m bid for Cahill to tempt Bolton to let him leave in January rather than lose him for free in the summer.

The report reckons that Alex is likely to make way for him as he is now deemed surplus to requirements at the Bridge after some poor performances earlier this season, while Redknapp is similarly expecting Sebastian Bassong to move on shortly as well.