John Terry reportedly told Roman Abramovich that he wants to talk to Manchester City about a possible £50m move.

The Chelsea captain met with the club’s Russian owner on Saturday afternoon and - according to reports in several Sunday papers - told him that he wants the chance to discuss a move to the world’s richest club.

The Sunday Times reports that Terry was told that the club would not match City’s offer of £250,000 a week, and that he would have to hand in a transfer request to engineer a move north.

Abramovich is allegedly willing to make Terry the highest-paid player at the club but will not pay him significantly more than current high earner Frank Lampard.

City apparently remain confident that they will sign Terry, with a £5m signing-on fee sweetening the deal, according to the News of the World.

They also suggest that any money recouped from the sale of Terry would be ploughed into a move for AC Milan’s Alexandre Pato.

John Terry will reportedly be offered a £25,000-a-week pay rise to ward off interest from Manchester City.

The Daily Mirror claims that Chelsea will make Terry the highest-paid player at Stamford Bridge with a £7.7m-a-year offer.

That figure would still see Terry earning around half of the money reportedly offered by Manchester City.

The England captain returns to training this week to meet new boss Carlo Ancelotti for the first time and is expected to be met with a new contract offer.

Chairman Bruce Buck said: “My line as a Chelsea fan, is that I would be devastated if John Terry left Chelsea. Having said that, it’s not going to happen. John Terry is synonymous with Chelsea and Chelsea is synonymous with John Terry.

“He has been here since he was a wee tot, he is the captain of Chelsea, he is the captain of England, he is the backbone of our team, he is not leaving.”