Chelsea confident Essien will sign

CHELSEA are quietly confident they can land Michael Essien in the next few days, although the club are taking nothing for granted in a transfer saga which has rumbled on for most of the summer.

Chief executive Peter Kenyon is expected to depart for France in the next 48 hours as the Premiership champions continue their relentless pursuit of the 22-year-old Ghanaian international.

The long-running battle to convince Lyon to sell the midfielder has been afflicted by more twists than an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. But it appears to have finally dawned on the French champions that Essien no longer has any desire to play for the club.