Chelsea front-runners for midfield dynamo Gerrard
The Barclays Premiership champions, open and long-time admirers of the England and Liverpool midfielder, may assess the possibility of approaching the Reds with a firm bid for his services now it would appear his future lies away from Anfield.
Chelsea's first-team squad are due to return to training today and boss Jose Mourinho wanted all his new faces to be signed, sealed and delivered by then.
However, only left-back Asier Del Horno has been added to the squad that lifted the Premiership and Carling Cup trophies last season.
Gerrard's situation will have cheered Chelsea, who were linked with a move for the player last summer.
It will come as no surprise if Mourinho moves in with a bid of £30million-plus for the midfield dynamo.
Earlier in the day, Mourinho claimed he may not need to splash out on players in the future.
Mourinho, who has spent £100m since he took over as manager last summer, said: "Chelsea in the future won't need this kind of budget. I'll bet that in the last year of my five-year deal we won't buy a player. Next season, we'll buy maybe two or three; the season after, one or two.
"The next season we'll buy one and after that we won't need any."
The Portuguese manager also said that he had challenged his players ahead of last season to prove they were good enough to win something a strategy he felt could have backfired.
"I put myself in the firing line straight away by saying things that some people understand and some don't," he added.
"Like, for example, 'I'm special', 'I want to win in the first season', 'I don't care about the power of Manchester United and Arsenal', and 'I don't care that no-one in English football was champion in the first season'."
"I might have put myself in the spotlight but, at the same time, I woke up my people.
"I said: 'All of you are top players, but nobody won a Premiership or a Champions League, and you are not successful players until you win.' So I made them think. I hurt them a bit but I created a big ambition in the team. It was risky but it worked."
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