Stamford Bridge boss admits pursuing Belgian and Brazilian stars.

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Chelsea manager Andre Villas Boas has admitted the Blues have been following wingers Kevin de Bruyne of KRC Genk and Willian of Shakhtar Donetsk.

However, the Portuguese coach also says that neither transfer looks likely to go ahead this month, as time has caught up with the Stamford Bridge club.

Earlier this week, Genk said that they expected a deal to go through with Chelsea for their 20 year-old winger de Bruyne.

“Dirk Degraen is in London and the expectation is that it (the transfer of De Bruyne) will be finished this week,” stated a Genk spokesman on Wednesday.

“The assumption is that Kevin de Bruyne will be transferred to Chelsea and then will finish the season [on loan] at Genk.”

However, Villas Boas said in today’s press conference that whilst he rated de Bruyne highly, he did not expect a transfer to happen to happen this January.

“Kevin is a player that is not within my immediate projects.

“He’s a player that the club has scouted for quite some time and was interested in for quite some time.

“I think Kevin is an extremely interesting player and I think it’s a good bet eventually if the club finishes the situation.”

As for Willian, Shakhtar Donetsk were widely reported to have rejected a €20m (£17m) offer earlier this month, but it appears that Chelsea will not follow up their interest this month.

“Willian is an extremely interesting player but I don’t think we will progress with our interest because of different issues, from work permit to price valuation.

“I think our project next year is more important than the actual project at the moment. Not that Willian doesn’t have the characteristics for the future but we are betting a lot on what we can build on for next year.”

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