Tottenham still think they can sign Willian in spite of Chelsea’s £32m bid

Tottenham are optimistic they can beat off Chelsea’s surprise late bid to hijack their deal for Anzhi Makhachkala star Willian.

Willian was set to complete a club record £30million switch to White Hart Lane yesterday only for Chelsea to offer £32m at the last moment.

Chelsea have been interested in Willian for two years and tried to sign him when he was at Shakhtar Donetsk and Andre Villas-Boas, now Spurs coach, was in charge.

Willian had already passed a medical and agreed personal terms with Spurs when his advisors became aware of Chelsea’s interest.

Anzhi were prepared to block the attacking midfielder’s switch to Spurs because of the strong relationship between their owner Suleiman Kerimov and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea can offer the 25-year-old Champions League football, and sources in Russia suggest he would prefer a move to Stamford Bridge.

However, Spurs are refusing to give up the fight and it is believed the Brazil international’s advisors are still working on pushing through a move to north London.

There have been reports that chairman Daniel Levy is so incensed about Chelsea’s attempts to gazump them he is threatening to pull out of the £86m sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.

But former manager Harry Redknapp said today: “Now they’ve spent all that money [£60m on four signings so far] there’s no way they’ll pull the plug on that deal. And the boy wants to go. We all know that for a fact.”

Chelsea’s bid for Willian raises doubts over the future of some of their players and it is understood they will listen to offers for Victor Moses, just one year after he joined from Wigan for £9m. Moses has not even been on the bench in Chelsea’s first two League games, despite playing well in pre-season.

There is also speculation that Chelsea are prepared to use Juan Mata as bait to persuade Manches-ter United to sell them Wayne Rooney but manager Jose Mourinho has consistently stated the Spain international is part of his plans. Mourinho says he has a ‘Plan B and C’ if a third bid for Rooney fails next week.

It is believed they have offered Anzhi striker Samuel Eto’o £82,000-a-week to move to Stamford Bridge — a massive drop on his £300,000-a-week salary.