Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will take a loss of millions of pounds in a bid to wrestle the Premier League title away from Manchester United this season.

According to reports, Chelsea have been given the green light to seal the £28 million signing of Brazil international Robinho from Real Madrid.

The 24-year-old is expected to fly to London in the next 48 hours to confirm terms and put pen to paper on a five-year deal.

Robinho will replace Andriy Shevchenko, who has returned to AC Milan after a disastrous two-year spell at Stamford Bridge.

Shevchenko, 31, cost a British record £30.8m when he moved from Milan to London, but failed to settle and has now gone full circle by making his way back to the San Siro on a 12-month loan.

The Ukrainian scored just nine Premier League goals in two seasons, which equates to £5m per goal if you consider that Chelsea had to pay £14.82m in wages on top of his transfer fee.

Another player destined to depart Chelsea is England winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, with rumours circulating that the 26-year-old will return to Manchester City for £9m, having signed for £21m back in July 2005.

The agent of out-of-favour Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic has indicated the Serbia international is set to join AC Milan.

Ivanovic is yet to make a single appearance for the Blues since joining from Lokomotiv Moscow in a £10million deal in January.

Chelsea are apparently reluctant to let the player go but Ivanovic's agent, Vlado Borozan, believes they are set to agree a deal to send the 24-year-old to the San Siro. Whether that transfer will be permanent or a loan move remains unclear, but Borozan warned that the player was unhappy to be a back-up in west London and that he had set his heart on a move to the north of Italy.

'Branislav chose Milan and he told that to the club, and for that reason he will probably wear the Rossoneri shirt this next season,' he told tuttomercato.com.

Cristiano Ronaldo will demand to be allowed to move to Real Madrid when he returns to Old Trafford on Tuesday after the Spanish champions publicly reiterated their desire to sign the Portuguese winger.

After weeks of speculation, Ronaldo will attempt to force Manchester United's hand by meeting Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager, and David Gill, the chief executive, to insist he be allowed to move to the Bernabeu.

Ronaldo was in Lisbon but is due to fly to Amsterdam to meet the surgeon who operated on his ankle, before flying to Manchester on Tuesday. In his absence, United beat Espanyol 1-0 in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's testimonial.

Bernd Schuster, the Madrid coach, confirmed that Real are continuing to work on a deal, with sources in Spain suggesting there has been a considerable softening in the English club's previously stubborn stance.

"We don't have any doubts that the club is working hard to get a solution to this matter," Schuster said.

Reports yesterday suggested that Milan, who have just signed Ronaldinho from Barcelona, were prepared to accept a bid from Chelsea for his much-lauded compatriot, smashing the record of £46m Real Madrid paid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. But a senior Milan source poured scorn on Chelsea's reported interest in the world's most sought-after playmaker. "The president of our club is Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister of Italy," he told The Sunday Telegraph

"As one of the richest people in Europe, although perhaps not on a par with Roman Abramovich, he is not going to sell his main asset. I certainly do not expect Kaka, whose contract runs until 2012, to say he needs to learn English, as happened with Andrei Shevchenko." Chelsea are reported as having held advanced discussions about Kaka but Milan insist this is untrue.