Chelsea overtake PSG in the race for Manuel Ugarte

The future of Manuel Ugarte is yet to be defined, but Chelsea had to raise the offer they made to the Uruguayan midfielder in order to overtake PSG, according to information from the Portuguese press, something they have already done on their way to acquiring the South American talent.

Ugarte's saga is still in motion and the Portuguese press revealed a new golden nugget on the matter as the Uruguayan midfielder of Sporting Lisboa decides between joining PSG or Chelsea.

The sports newspaper Record published a piece on Saturday in which they revealed that Sporting are "waiting for the player's decision" before starting to organize their roster for the next season. For now, negotiations between Ugarte and his suitors are considered "at a standstill."

The first proposal that Ugarte received was from PSG, who offered him a contract with an annual salary of €5m, a reasonable amount on PSG's scale but very good in absolute terms for a player coming from the Portuguese championship.

For their part, Chelsea only offered the 22-year-old midfielder €2m per year, a sum that initially disappointed him, although as Record revealed it forced Chelsea to raise the number now matching PSG's figure if not improving on it.

Chelsea would now be willing to offer the player €3.5m per year, plus bonuses. Therefore, the Blues seriously approached the Parisian proposal, and the intention is to convince the player, who also seems to favor moving to CFC and the Premier League over landing at PSG in France.

Once Ugarte chooses his future destination, the two clubs would still have to agree on the transfer as neither seems willing to pay the €60m at which his release clause is fixed.

According to the latest information on this particular matter, PSG offered two payments of €30m, while Chelsea wanted to make five payments of €12m each.

Sporting favor PSG's terms, though at the end of the day, it makes sense for Ugarte to have the final word while his current club will end up bagging the full release clause one way or another.