Roman Abramovich met John Terry yesterday as Chelsea called their captain’s bluff over his highly public flirtation with Manchester City. The Russian billionaire will reject a third, £30m-plus bid for their captain this week and has told Terry there is no intention of matching City’s offer to double his pay to £250,000 a week.

While Abramovich is ready to make Terry the best-paid player at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s owner will not go significantly beyond the £150,000-a-week salary granted to Frank Lampard last summer. For his part, Terry is understood to have requested permission to speak openly with City about their plans. Chelsea denied that was the case last night. There have already been significant under-the-table discussions and the England international has asked football dealmaker Chris Nathaniel to help negotiate with City.

Nathaniel already represents Robinho, City’s current best-paid player, and Micah Richards. He has previously secured Terry a lucrative book deal, works extensively with his England teammate Rio Ferdinand and last season fronted a Nigerian takeover bid for Newcastle United that came to nothing.

Terry’s advisers say he has been disquieted by the time it took Chelsea to contact him after initial news of City’s bid broke, and that he has had to wait a week to speak directly with Abramovich. They do not rule out the possibility of the centre-back joining City.

Should Terry decide to place Sheikh Mansour’s petrobillions ahead of his frequently stated devotion to Chelsea, the London club will force Terry to hand in a formal transfer request and make clear that the player is the driving force behind a move.

City remain confident that Terry will be their player before the new Premier League season begins. The England captain spent part of a recent holiday in Dubai with Mark Hughes and their manager believes that Terry is unhappy with Chelsea's failure to add top-class players to their squad and a lack of consultation over Carlo Ancelotti’s appointment.

When City made their first unsuccessful bid for Terry in January, the player’s agent, Aaron Lincoln, was negotiating the transfer of Wayne Bridge to Eastlands. During that period, Terry had expressed his discontent with the training methods of Luiz Felipe Scolari, Chelsea manager at the time, and a message was sent to City that the central defender “wanted out”.

Hughes is in the market for two centre-backs and has calculated that Terry can reinforce his defence, providing leadership to what has been an often fragile team while satisfying his employer’s desire for a star signing. City’s decision on Friday to withdraw an offer for Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o was believed to be partly motivated by their belief that Terry will go through with his exit from Chelsea.

Chelsea believe Terry is using City’s overtures as a means of further improving his financial position and status at Stamford Bridge, and that the 29-year-old has no serious interest of leaving.

It would certainly be politically difficult for Terry to be seen as the instigator of a move away from a club with whom he has fashioned a public image of slavish loyalty. Talking in February about City’s initial bid for him, Terry said: “Chelsea told me what had happened as a courtesy. I was very happy with their reaction, as mine would have been the same. I have always said that I want to end my career at the club which I love and we all see no reason why that cannot happen.”

Though Terry has had several injuries in recent seasons, Chelsea continue to insist he is “not for sale at any price”. The club are, however, mindful of dealings with Terry over his last contract talks in 2007, when he signed a five-year deal.

During those negotiations, Terry asked for a 10-year contract that included a clause guaranteeing he would be the club’s best-paid player for the duration of the deal. The defender also wanted an option to become Chelsea’s manager when he retired from playing.