The American billionaire who wants to buy Chelsea is considering making a fresh approach, despite the club’s insistence that owner Roman Abramovich will not consider a sale.

Todd Boehly, who is part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is keen to purchase a Premier League club and has made Chelsea his No 1 target.

Senior Chelsea sources are adamant that the club is not for sale and that Abramovich is not interested in entering into any negotiations, in spite of reports that his valuation of Chelsea has now rocketed to £3 billion.

But Boehly, who was part of the group who tried to purchase Tottenham Hotspur in 2014, is understood to be weighing up a new offer after having an initial approach turned down.

Boehly is not thought to be working to any timescale, which means he could wait for what he believes is the right moment before trying again.

But one deadline approaching for Abramovich is the Mar 31, 2020 date that marks the expiration of the planning permission for Chelsea’s £1 billion stadium project that was shelved in May last year.

There is no prospect of the demolition work the club had agreed to being started by that date, but Chelsea are hopeful that the planning process would not prove as complex as the first time around if Abramovich decided to give the green light to the project again.