Chelsea close to landing AC Milan star Andrea Pirlo

Chelsea moved closer to landing Andrea Pirlo last night - as AC Milan lined up Real Madrid's Mahamadou Diarra as a replacement.

New Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti is keen to be reunited with Pirlo in time for the Italy playmaker to make his debut in Sunday's Community Shield clash with Manchester United.

Read all you need to know about the Italian maestro here.

Ancelotti plans to use Pirlo as the base man in the midfield diamond he wants to use at Stamford Bridge, with Frank Lampard the attacking option in a narrow quartet.

While Pirlo, 30, is keeping his head down until a deal has been done, Chelsea are increasingly confident of bringing Ancelotti the player he wants.

Milan are ready to sell Pirlo but are asking for more than the £8million plus Peruvian striker Claudio Pizarro that the Blues have so far put on the table.

The west London club are ready to raise their bid to £10m in addition to the South American, who is then likely to be used by Milan as a makeweight to grab Sevilla hitman Luis Fabiano.

But the sale of Pirlo will be made easier if Milan can get a replacement sorted out - and Madrid's Malian midfielder Diarra (right) has been earmarked in a £10m swoop by new San Siro boss Leonardo. Chelsea, who have signed midfielder Yuri Zhirkov from CSKA Moscow, Manchester City striker Daniel Sturridge and Middlesbrough keeper Ross Turnbull, are determined to bolster their squad in the transfer window.