Chelsea FC-True Blue

Carvalho is regarded as one of the finest centre half's in the world. No wonder when we signed him from FC Porto back in 2004 for a huge fee of £19 million. He has re payed that fee over the years by his awesome performances which have led some to say that he makes John Terry look much better than he actually is, although I do not buy into that.
But a time comes when all good things must come to an end. And in Carvalho's case it certainly has come true. He is a great professional who always gives a hundred percent every time he plays. But last season has to one of his worst having made only 18 appearances altogether and after recovering from one injury he stumbles over blades of grass and then falls injured again. This has been the case throughout last season.

Now, he could have worked on his fitness and come back stronger to get a place in the team. But instead of doing that he has been moaning all through the summer break about how he was treated badly by the club. Now what does he expect the club to do ? Play him while he is injured ? NO. Seriously what can you do with a injured player ? Except from providing medical experts and fitness coach they cannot do more than that. He should know that. Ok, Maybe he wants to leave. In that case why don't you just hand in a transfer request and go. Only players who want to play for the club should stay. I would sell him in any case. He is 31 and selling him would represent a good business decision. There is always Alex, Ivanovic and young Micheal Mancienne ready to step up.

Chairman Bruce Buck has come out and said that he expects to sign at least one marquee signing this summer. He has also stated that we won't be spending unrealistic prices on them. As of now there are very limited options in that niche market even if you have the money. That is partly due to the entry of Real Madrid into the market. Star names such as Kaka, Ronaldo and Benzema have all moved to the bernabeau. Very few such a Messi (who won't leave Barcelona), Ribery (Seems like Bayern won't sell him) and Villa (Nobody knows what is the situation with him) and Pato who seems to be the best possibility. Not much options in it. Hope we sign somebody in that list.

Chelsea FC have completed the signing of Russian Yuri Zhirkov for a fee of £18million today. He is our third signing after Daniel Sturridge and Ross Turnbull. I saw him at the Euro's and he looked very good playing for Russia. Ancelotti in today's press conference
where he was unveiled to the press said that he can play either in midfield or in defence. I am happy that we have finally spent some cash for this summer. I am expecting Zhirkov to be a good signing as he is mid-way through the Russian season now, so he probably doesn't require pre-season that much. If he is as good as thought of then we can probably offload players like Kalou who simply have not turned into what we expected when he joined as a 20 year old.

Ancelotti was today unveiled to the press today as I mentioned above. I have to say that his English is no better if not worse than Scolari's English. I just hope that everything goes well because even though language was a problem for Scolari it was not the only problem he had. For example, not having men at the posts while taking corners does not require knowledge of English. I simply requires some tactical knowledge like Guus Hiddink.

Coming back to Ancelotti, his first job has to be convincing Terry to stay because according to some reports Terry has his head turned towards City now after it was revealed in THE SUN that Terry and Manchester City manager Mark Hughes were staying and dining in the same hotel. That is one news I did not want to hear. Terry has not come out and said that he does not want to leave. Maybe he is actually encouraging the interest to get himself a pay rise from the £130,000 a week he already is on ! Or he must be actually interested. Either way he will not be handing a transfer request which will mean losing the loyalty fees that he will be due having stayed for such a long time at the club. The only way he will be leaving the club in a dignified manner is if the club accept a bid, which I hope they don't.

Image Source: Skysports.com

Seems like Kenyon and others at Chelsea FC have read my post a few days earlier where I was groaning about the lack of transfers and quite a large number of other blog's as well. So now we make two signings within a matter of days. Daniel Sturridge becomes our second signing of the summer. He comes in on a bosman free transfer although we will be
paying a fee of around £5m as he is under 24. This is a signing which won't raise eyebrows although he is talented and young. I would prefer Di Santo over him because he is a player who can be moulded into another Drogba if he bulks up. I do not know where Sturridge is going to fit in personally. I am just hoping that they won't put him in the reserves and waste his talent.

And regarding other news, it is reported that Manchester City have offered John Terry £300,000 a week which is double the wages that he currently earns with that. My confidence in John staying with us is decreasing everyday. Last January I thought that it would be impossible for him to leave. Now though there is every increasing probability that he will leave. If he does leave then it is important that we get the best value for him. A transfer fee of £30 million is a joke for a player like Terry. Given his importance to the club and team it would be appropriate to demand at least £60 million. Although I would hate to see him go, £60 million is quite a sum of money to ignore.

Yuri Zhirkov the Russian playmaker who plays for CSKA Moscow looks to be our next signing. It is reported that he will come to London next week. Good player who can replace Ashley Cole in the left back spot. That is because Ashley Cole seems to have rejected a new deal at the club and is being targeted by Real Madrid. He is demanding £130,000 a week and he is a left back. The meaning for greed in the dictionary has to be Ashley Cole. Has the world gone mad ? I know that he is one of the best left backs in the world but if a left back is demanding that much money what would it take to sign a top quality striker ? £1 million a week ? No chance. I'd say that we sell him, get the cash, buy Aly Cissokho from Porto.

In the latest transfer news of today, it seems that Manchester city won't sleep without signing our captain John Terry. A Chelsea statement has confirmed that we have rejected a formal bid for Terry. This is actually the second time they are bidding for our captain after an approach was rejected in January. So are you worried ? I am not. That is simply
because Terry will never leave the club he has grown into. A true legend who simply puts his body to help the team's cause. But the simply fact that we are spending less and less every season and that so far we had not made a summer signing until we wrapped up the free transfer of Ross Turnbull recently will make Terry to sit up and just take a look at the offer even though he will not actually be thinking of leaving.

To see the likes of Real Madrid blow out £150 millions just like that in a matter of few weeks and City signing Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry and being further linked with Tevez, Eto'o must have been frustrating for him as it is for us. Loyalty has decreased so much in football that sometimes you wonder if there is any left. Just take the example of Kaka'. Both him and AC Milan often give interviews stating as how they love each other and that Kaka' would finish his career there. But Milan consider an offer from Manchester City in January and suddenly the bond is broken and Kaka leaves for Madrid after less than six months. Hence I am confident but certainly not hundred percent.
Ross Turnbull has become our first summer signing of 2009 and the first of the Ancelotti reign. I have to say that I am pretty happy with the business we have made as Turnbull comes on a free transfer. And at 24 years of age he still has lots to offer to us. May well become another Cudicini and spend a decade like him. His 6'4 frame is just short of our own giant Petr Cech. I have seen him playing for Middlesbrough and he looks to be a very good shot stopper although I have to admit that I am not a fan of his judgement in coming for crosses. But he'll benefit from having one of the 'Best goalkeepers in the world' beside him to help him.

During the end of last season (more precisely during the end of the Scolari reign) everybody was saying that the squad had become too old, which in truth it has and that we needed some fresh faces. Then after Hiddink's arrival it suddenly seemed that Roman Abramovich had fallen back in love with Chelsea with big name stars being reported as targets for this summer. But things
have not gone quite the way that I hoped to. Lets look back at some of the players mentioned to be coming this summer. Kaka, Ribery, Villa, Pato and some others. Quite an impressive target list that. But who did we get so far ? NONE.

Obviously Roman and Kenyon have nothing to do with Perez taking over the presidency at Real Madrid and buying all the attacking players in the world for huge prices. But they should have atleast worked in getting some other targets like Johnson who will be signing with Liverpool. I do not know what they are doing with the transfer of Zhirkov. He comes out daily and says that he prefers Barcelona over us. Fine, if he wants that then so be it. We should start looking at other options.

Sorry guys, I have been away for a while and have since not been able to update the blog. But now I am back and lets get on with what is going on in the latest transfer market news. Signed by the Scolari as one of his untouchables for £8 million from Barcelona, his first two games were outstanding for us but ever since he got injured in the warm-up during the Manchester United
match he has been absolutely been rubbish. After Hidding took over from Scolari he has been a regular bench warmer. So it would not be a complete shock to us if he left the club after such a miserable season. Jose Mourinho now at Inter has recently revealed that he would like to take Deco to Inter. Deco also revealed that he wanted to leave the club.

Now Deco has come out and said, "Chelsea are kind of his toy. Sometimes Abramovich makes decisions that go over the head of the director of football."


Everybody knows that Abramovich sacks managers pretty quickly when things don't go properly. But come on, should Scolari be given more time in the situation we were in during february. We could have finished out the Champions League qualification places, we could have had a second consequtive season without a trophy if Scolari continued. The FA cup victory clearly would not have been achieved if not for Hiddink.