The 24-year-old was snapped up by the Stamford Bridge outfit for £8.2m a year ago, but has only made 13 first team appearances.

“Branislav has always said he wants to go to Italy and play for one of the four big clubs – Juve, Inter, Milan and Roma – or Fiorentina.”

He had already been in negotiations with Juve and Milan in the summer, but they baulked at the price-tag.

Now The Sun reports that Chelsea are demanding £14m, but Ivanovic could push that down by forcing a transfer to the peninsula.

Fiorentina are in no position to pay such a large sum and have the option of waiting until June to sign Cristian Zapata from Udinese.

Meanwhile, Chelsea are also trying to off-load Florent Malouda, who is of interest to Juventus boss Claudio Ranieri.