Wigan laugh off Chelsea bid for Victor Moses

The chairman of Wigan Athletic has dismissed a bid from Chelsea for Nigerian international winger Victor Moses as derisory and accused the Champions League winners of "taking the Mickey."

Dave Whelan confirmed that Chelsea had made a bid, believed to be in the region of £4 million ($6.3m, 1.24 million euros), for the 21-year-old which had immediately been rejected.

The Nigerian international has only 12 months of his contract remaining and, while talks have stalled on a new deal, Whelan is not prepared to allow the player to leave on the cheap.

"Chelsea would need to get realistic before we would even listen to them," he told ESPN.

"They made a bid at 6pm last night (Monday) and we turned it down flat."

Whelan added that he believes Moses, who joined the Latics from Crystal Palace in January 2010 and enjoyed the best season of his young career in 2011-12, was not yet ready to join a club of Chelsea's stature.

"(Manager) Roberto Martinez has brought this player on and he needs at least another year with Roberto to become a top player," Whelan said.

"We have offered him a new contract but it seems the agent, more than the player, wants to move him on - at least that is the impression we are getting.

"It cannot be for the player's good. Victor Moses needs another year or two before moving to a club like Chelsea.

"He needs games and he won't be first choice at Chelsea, I wouldn't have thought.

"We don't need to sell him with 12 months to go on his contract because he is under 24 so wouldn't be going on a free transfer.

"Ideally we would like him to sign a new contract, or a club like Chelsea would have to be realistic.

"At the moment, they are taking the Mickey with the bid they've made."