The club tabled a late bid during the January transfer window but were put off by Dynamo Zagreb's £20 million asking price for the player, who helped knock England out of Euro 2008 qualification at Wembley.

	In pursuit: Chelsea have bid reported £12m for Luka Modric

However, the Mirror reports that Grant has renewed his effort for the 22-year-old to ward off competition from a host of other European clubs.

Modric's signing could also prove costly for Frank Lampard, as the England international tries to hold positive over Grant's ambitions of squad rotation and keeping Chelsea's top players rested on the bench.

Lampard has stalled on signing a new contract at Stamford Bridge and his current deal expires in 18 months.

The Chelsea midfielder has also been critical of Grant's managerial policies which saw Lampard play a four-minute cameo role against Olympiacos on Tuesday.

In 2005, Modric took an unprecedented step when he signed a ten-year contract at Dynamo.

The deal subsequently inflated his value to enable the club to keep hold of him in the short term, but any move to Chelsea would allow Modric to buy himself out of contract when a player enters his fourth year.

Under Fifa's article 17, first exploited by Rangers defender Andy Webster - subsequently known as the Webster ruling - Modric could buy himelf out for around £1.5 million during next January’s transfer window.