Blues take Robinho pursuit to the wire

Chelsea will make a final attempt to broker a deal with Real Madrid for Robinho on Monday in a bid to bring the acrimonious transfer saga to a conclusion.

The Spanish giants are furious following the public pursuit of the 24-year-old, and they criticised the conduct of Chelsea's board and the club for advertising Robinho shirts on their official website.

Chelsea, who are hopeful of completing a deal, then responded with a strongly-worded statement, which read: "There is nothing wrong with publicly confirming our interest in a player when the club involved is well aware of it, has been in receipt of two bids and is negotiating to sell the player. So we completely refute any criticism from Real Madrid."

The statement continued: "As for the issue regarding the website, Real are well aware this was a regrettable accident by an external supplier which was rectified as soon as it was brought to our attention and not a single shirt was sold."

Further doubt was cast on the transfer late on Sunday when Real president Ramon Calderon insisted, "There will be no player coming in and no player leaving", before the the closure of the transfer window at midnight.

Luiz Felipe Scolari could have done with Robinho to break down Tottenham on Sunday, with the Barclays Premier League clash ending 1-1.

They were the first points dropped under Scolari as Spurs held on to get their season under way, although the Chelsea boss feels his squad is strong enough without Robinho.

To illustrate his point, Scolari revealed he had interest from Arsenal for Salomon Kalou.

"If you ask Arsene Wenger, he wants Kalou as a centre-forward and Arsene is an intelligent man," he said. "He wanted Kalou two or three months ago when we started negotiations for some players. I said no.

"If he loves Kalou as a number nine, I try it sometimes. But I have (Nicolas) Anelka, (Didier) Drogba and (Franco) Di Santo."