EXCLUSIVE – Chelsea poised to trump City on Zouma target

We revealed early last month that City were at the table for St Etienne’s exciting young central defender Kurt Zouma.

City are ready to go as high as £12m for the 19-year-old, who has also attracted the interest of United and Barcelona.

But it would appear Chelsea are now in the box-seat after holding weekend talks with his club, with a view to a January move.

They are believed to have offered the French club £13m PLUS two loan players from their academy to steal a march on us and the rest.

Pellegrini has been hedging his bets with regards signing another central defender and wanted to see how Kompany would come back from his most recent injury lay-off.

This would seem a little short-sighted and we can only hope City think Zouma is worth going that extra yard for? City have had back some fantastic scouting reports and he seems perfect for us in terms of both his ability and age.