• Chelsea and Anderlecht delegation to thrash out deal
• Blues want to sign Genk’s Kevin de Bruyne

Romelu Lukaku hopes to finalise his dream £20m move to Chelsea on Saturday at a meeting between power-brokers in Monaco. The 18-year-old Anderlecht and Belgium striker, dubbed the new Didier Drogba because of his physical power, has made it clear that he wants to join Chelsea, the club that he has supported, despite interest from elsewhere in England and Europe.

Lukaku’s agent, Christophe Henrotay, who is based in Monaco, will welcome the Anderlecht general manager, Herman van Holsbeeck, and a delegation from Stamford Bridge, and the parties will seek to conclude the transfer. Lukaku, a prodigy, was followed by a TV documentary crew for a year and, while on a school trip to London, he visited Stamford Bridge and was filmed giving a mock interview in the press area in which he declared his ambition to play for the club.

Chelsea also want to sign Kevin de Bruyne, the 19-year-old Genk and Belgium left-winger, and his representative will be at the talks in Monaco. Chelsea’s intention would be to loan De Bruyne straight out, with Anderlecht keen to take him, though Genk would probably refuse to help their rivals. Complicating matters further is the notion that Anderlecht could use the proceeds of the Lukaku sale to sign De Bruyne permanently.

Chelsea have suggested a loan to Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands but De Bruyne considers that a step down. He helped his club to the Belgian title and, at present, he can look forward to playing in next season’s Champions League. Genk would prefer to be the beneficiaries of any loan back. Anderlecht may turn to the Monaco striker Dieumerci Mbokani to replace Lukaku, who has emerged as one of the hottest prospects in European football.

ChelseaAnderlechtTransfer windowDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk

Tottenham are alone among the four Premier League clubs in having a Champions League group they can really savour

The leading English clubs would be aghast at any suggestion of adventure in the group phase of the Champions League. With Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal among the top seeds, none of their managers was ever likely to be stifling a gasp of anxiety at the draw.

Tottenham Hotspur, who last savoured the competition 48 years ago in its European Cup incarnation, would have been alone in feeling the pulse quicken though it accelerated further when they were pitted against the holders, Internazionale. The Serie A side also landed a domestic Double.

They were so effective under José Mourinho, before he left for Real Madrid, that there seldom seemed to be a instant when one trophy or another was not being cradled. The sort of acceleration that sweeps Tottenham towards such an encounter is hair-raising but also welcome since nobody can be jaded at the thought of Inter, now managed by Rafael Benítez, coming to White Hart Lane.

Their squad is so remarkable that it is virtually a caricature of excellence. At the draw in Monaco, the club continued to gorge itself on honours, with the prizes for goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward of the year going, respectively, to Júlio César, Maicon, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito. Benítez has a little less scope to introduce new blood since Mario Balotelli, who did not get off the bench in the 2010 final, has gone to Manchester City.

The greater comfort for Tottenham lies in the fact any club might be compelled to proclaim the excitement of such fixtures while shrugging ruefully in private. When Harry Redknapp does tear his gaze from Inter, he will not be especially pleased to see one of the other adversaries in the group. Werder Bremen eliminated Sampdoria in the qualifiers.

Twente Enschede, however, may have peaked by taking their first Eredivisie title and with Steve McClaren having then moved on to Wolfsburg, the side is now under the command of Michel Preud’homme. It is at least feasible that Tottenham can go through to the last 16 as runners-up in their group.

Once thoughts have been wrenched away from Inter, the mood may be sunnier at White Hart Lane since the remainder of the fixtures are less daunting. An even more marked contentment will have been felt elsewhere, with Manchester United seeing Group C as a routine assignment.

There would be normally be wincing at the prospect of La Liga foes, but Valencia have transferred both David Villa and David Silva. Ferguson might have to endure nothing more exacting than demands that he recall his time at Rangers once more. The people of Manchester could be anxious since few will forget rioting in the city at the time of the Scottish club’s Uefa Cup final there with Zenit St Petersburg in 2008.

Rangers have had severe financial worries since then but they have eased enough for transfer fees to be paid this summer and Walter Smith’s side has been resilient enough to take the last two League titles in Scotland. That success, all the same, will not concern Ferguson and nor should meetings with the Turkish club Bursaspor.

Chelsea’s group has a ring to it since they are pitted against former winners of the tournament in Marseille. The French club seized the Champions League in 1993 but there had been no subsequent trophies of note until the team managed by Didier Deschamps completed a domestic Double last season.

That in itself will give Carlo Ancelotti pause for thought at Stamford Bridge and Spartak Moscow can also present problems. Group G is completed by the Slovak club MSK Zilina. Arsenal, too, will head east, but the trips to take on Shakhtar Donetsk and Partizan Belgrade will be regarded automatically as awkward engagements.

Currently, though, it is Braga who are really to be feared. The Portuguese club’s elimination of Celtic was not particularly surprising but in the next qualifier they did disrupt the natural order. Braga defeated Sevilla 1-0 at home and 4-3 in Spain. There is a capacity, as Celtic also saw, for both obduracy and goal scoring.

For the moment, the glamour of the Champions League is felt only weakly by the British clubs. It exists forcefully elsewhere, in Group C’s combination of Milan, José Mourinho’s Real Madrid and those other former winners, Martin Jol’s Ajax. Auxerre will do well not to be awestruck.

While England is the sole country to have four representatives, it should be borne in mind that no Premier League team made it beyond the quarter- finals last season.

Despite the apparent standing, these are clubs that must prove their worth all over again.

Champions LeagueManchester UnitedTottenham HotspurChelseaArsenalKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk