Chelsea looked to have completed their massive summer buying spree before the World Cup, with five-six new players coming in before 9th June.
However, with 7 weeks left to the end of the transfer period it would be crazy to think that Chelsea are done – they have, by my view, 2-3 transfers still to do.
The first one is for a quality left-back. Both Ashley Cole and Roberto Carlos have been linked, and in the coming days Chelsea will be tested when Real Madrid offer a player-plus-cash deal for Robben – with Roberto Carlos plus 10 million going to Chelsea, and Robben going the other way to Real Madrid.
Possible? Very much so. As much as Chelsea do not want to sell, they know that they cannot keep a player who wants to go. And as I’ve said earlier, Robben will leave Chelsea if the Madrid offer is right (please read the linked article before making any comments on this issue).
This means that Chelsea’s other target, Ashley Cole, may end up staying at Arsenal after all. I think Mourinho will move for Cole first, but Arsenal would not be willing to sell him to a rival (just like United were not prepared to sell Nistelrooy to Chelsea). Ashley Cole is perhaps one of the best left backs in the world (Lahm runs him close on recent evidence, although Lahm tends to dive), so the 20 million price tag is fair.
With Crespo destined to move to Italy (and now that he’s said that he’s ok with moving to either Inter or Milan), Chelsea might look to bring in a new striker. Drogba, Kalou and Shevchenko are the three senior squad strikers and with Kalou being ‘one for the future’, Chelsea look set to move for Tevez.
I said earlier that Chelsea should have bought Tevez instead of Shevchenko, but having both in the team would be … well … scary. A 15-20 million buy is being mooted, but one wonders whether Chelsea will really meet their financial goals if they keep buying like this.
There was also a rumour that Chelsea may go for a defender, but Thuram is being linked with Arsenal and Cannavaro looks set to join Real Madrid.
Will Carvalho accept being on the bench? I doubt that Gallas will accept anything less than being a first-choice centre-back, and a Terry-Gallas pairing is far better than Terry-Carvalho.
More as the news comes in…
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