Trabelsi's £4m Chelsea move put on hold

Ajax defender Hatem Trabelsi is unlikely to move to England until the summer, according to his agent.

The Tunisian right-back was today linked with a £4million move to Chelsea.

Manchester United and Newcastle are also interested and Trabelsi is keen to move to the Premiership. But he returns home this week for the African Nations Cup and agent Franklin Sedoc said: "Nothing should happen before that. Everything is up to Ajax anyway and nothing is expected until the summer.

"He is an outstanding talent and has a number of options in Europe but he wants to play in England."

Chelsea are likely to wait until Trabelsi's contract expires in the summer, when he will be available on a free transfer. The 26-year-old, who was nominated for last year's African Player of the Year Award, has also attracted interest from Juventus and AC Milan.

There are also new reports that both Chelsea and United have asked Inter Milan about Christian Vieri. Chelsea made a £25m bid for the striker last summer but the Italian club refused to sell. Inter president Massimo Moratti has been quoted as saying: "United have been in contact but they are not the only ones interested in Christian."

Chelsea are also being linked with giant Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech at Rennes. The 21-year-old has been a target for Tottenham but his agent has claimed he was in London last week negotiating a deal, with a fee of £7.5m mentioned.

Meanwhile, Roman Abramovich has denied having talks with Eddie Jordan over the purchase of the Irishman's Formula One motor racing team.

The Russian billionaire owner of Chelsea was said to have met Jordan several times before Christmas and was preparing a bid to buy the F1 team.

Today, however, John Mann, a spokesman for Abramovich, said: "There is nothing in this. At the moment Roman is being linked with bids to buy anything from a shopping centre to another football team.

"When anything is up for sale his name is being connected with it and it gets a little nasty after a time.

"It is true that Roman enjoys F1 and has met Eddie several times but that's it.

"Roman has also met with Bernie Ecclestone but that doesn't mean he's going to buy his house.

"We just want to lay all these rumours to rest."