Sources: Marco Palestra close and what it might mean for Reece James

This wasn't kept quiet as such but it happened fast

We had been hearing about some Chelsea interest in Marco Palestra of Cagliari, but we all expected him to be joining Inter Milan so didn’t think much into it.

Chelsea’s interest wasn’t exactly being kept quiet, although some journalists were out there trying to play it down. But Chelsea have moved very fast on this to hijack Inter’s move to sign him.

Now, it’s important to say that it’s not been officially confirmed yet, but Fabrizio Romano has just dropped the ‘HERE WE GO’ deal done! It doesn’t look like Inter will be countering Chelsea’s latest offer for Palestra, believed to be around £50m - which has apparently been accepted.

Xabi Alonso jumped in to convince the 21-year-old right full back and helped him make his mind up, but before that, Palestra only wanted to join Inter and wanted to stay in Italy.