Rumour Mill

According to reports in the Portuguese media Chelsea sent a rep to Portugal to watch the Champions League game between Benfica and Monaco last night. The target is almost certainly Talisca and as the player's star continues to rise, Chelsea will be aware they need to push ahead for the player.

Chelsea interest in Talisca is no secret, Jose Mourinho made sure the whole world knew about it and even got into a spat with Benfica manager Jorge Jesus about who spotted the Brazilian youngster first.

Mourinho had claimed Talisca would have become a Premier League player during the summer if it wasn't for work permit issues. Jesus said Mourinho was talking rubbish and that he'd had never heard of Talisca before he arrived at Benfica. The Chelsea manager was having none of that and hit back.

It carried on in the Portuguese press but the two men have at the very least a grudging respect for one another and things calmed down. Just a bit of friendly rivalry about football knowledge and Jesus getting frustrated that prying eyes were already fixing straight on Talisca.

The Portuguese press love a Jose Mourinho story and therefore his supposed interest in Talisca was hugely covered. In mid September we covered reports from Portuguese newspaper Record about Chelsea interest and they revealed that Talisca had a €45m buyout clause, that works out to be around £35m. It was even claimed that Chelsea had made efforts to sign the player during the summer and send him to Dutch club Vitesse on loan.

Talisca himself told Record in October that he was pleased with the interest of Mourinho "I am very happy for the praise of Mourinho, this means that my work is being done right."

The Brazilian is 20 years old and is shining at Benfica. He scored the one goal of the game last night against AS Monaco and was Man of the Match. International recognition came recently with Brazil's Olympic squad and a quick call up for the full squad doesn't seem out of the question. That would make a work permit much easier to get.