Having taken an extended break from the sharp-toothed world of Vital Chelsea following my attempts to pass a series of public examinations, better known as A Levels, I’m back to cast a critical eye over this whole transfer market debacle.
Honestly, the world of football is just so ludicrous. According to the various ‘reputable’ news sources, Chelsea have been linked with everyone from Diego Costa to Long John Silver and I, for one, crave clarity on the maddening nature of the situation. Every-time I log onto to NewsNow, I see ‘Chelsea To Seal £60m Double Deal’ or ‘Costa has medical’ or ‘Fabregas sighted in London visiting friends- mega deal struck in Kensington living room’ and, so far, none of this has actually produced any signings. Obviously I know that the transfer window doesn’t open until July but, for many of these deals, there’s been no word of anything official.
This Costa saga has been rumbling on since August last year and, judging by latest reports, the Brazilian born Spaniard doesn’t actually want to move to Chelsea. I thought the whole idea was to wrap that one up nice and quick before he jets off to the World Cup- but we’re still here, without any real recognition of an official bid or acceptance on the part of Atletico. Did we really think it’d be as easy as just picking and choosing? As my much wiser older brother pointed out, this is Chelsea we’re talking about- is it ever that easy? As good a player as Costa is, if he doesn’t want to wear the blue shirt then why are we taking him on? He looked distinctly average against a top class Premier League defence and, had he not converted that penalty, his impact upon the semi-final would have been minimal.
As a side note, there’s a lot of talk about Chelsea potentially signing three Atletico players, including a reunion with Tiago. As lovely as that would be, are Atletico, winners of La Liga and finalists in the Champions League, likely to sell us whoever we want at whatever price we want? In a word, no. They have the high ground here and I doubt there’ll be too many players rushing for the exit doors.
The club has worked two sensible pieces of business so far of which the first was to gently cut Frank Lampard free from his berth in the harbour of Chelsea bench-warmers. That derogatory title was certainly temporary and I’ll be the first to say that the guy is an absolute legend, the like of which we’re unlikely to see again in our lifetimes. However he’d looked very average throughout last season and we, as a club, are moving in a direction which he just cannot follow.
Secondly, we’ve sold David Luiz. Apparently. According to the official Chelsea website, he’s still a Chelsea player so that one has obviously stalled too. I’ve always had a lot of time for Luiz- I think he’s a marvellous player with talent in abundance. But he’s too erratic, too prone to mistakes and, despite various efforts to adjust his unpredictable nature, he still resembles the slightly unstable, samba child that arrived at Stamford Bridge three and a half years ago as opposed to a well groomed, tightly disciplined holding midfielder that Mourinho might have envisaged. Nonetheless the reputed figure, which bears no acknowledgement or recognition of the FFP sanctions imposed by UEFA on PSG, is colossal and if that one goes through, it’ll be like Mata- a class player but a tidy sum to compensate for that.
Fabregas? Really? Are we just trying to build a team which the media can crucify us for? Undoubtedly, he’s a class player and we need someone to link the play and fill the hole left by Mata. We lacked, at times, that final pass to cut open a defence last year and Fabregas can certainly provide that. But what sort of player will he be for us? He’s 27, arguably past his best and will be dealing with the rejection of the Nou Camp. If we do actually sign him, it’ll be good business but I just hope we don’t get held to ransom over the guy- I can think of a certain, much younger French midfielder who would fit the role just as aptly.
Courtois? God knows. As ever, the whole thing is shrouded in mystery and suspense and we probably won’t know until August 15th. I personally believe we should bring Courtois in- it is obvious that he’s ready and what a presence he’d be behind Terry and Cahill. Cech has been a true servant to the club and will always be remembered in CFC folklore but football is a performance sport and I’d wager that Courtois’s performances for Atletico last season were among the greatest in the world.
Henceforth, I’ll be keeping a close eye over proceedings and will be updating as I go along. Lets hope that we wrap up a few deals immediately after the WC as any hope of completing anything before or during is unlikely. This is just my opinion on the whole scene and I’d love to hear yours- drop me a comment below!
Up the Blues!
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