CHELSEA’S LAVISH €89.5 million recruitment of Fernando Torres and David Luiz on deadline day will be the prelude to further significant strengthening in the summer as the manager Carlo Ancelotti continues to reinvigorate his squad ahead of the implementation of Uefa’s financial fair-play regulations.
Roman Abramovich is set to sanction further eye-catching additions to the Premier League champions’ squad as Chelsea seek to deflect the considerable threat posed by Manchester City’s financial muscle, together with the challenges of Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea, who reported losses of €83 million for the financial year to June 2010, expect to shed a few of their higher earners at the end of the season, as they did last summer, but will re-enter the market with gusto in pursuit of established targets.
Those include the Ajax right-back Gregory van der Wiel, a player of whom Chelsea’s outgoing sporting director, Frank Arnesen, was quoted as saying was “on our number one list but not currently at the top”, with the club’s recent defensive priority having been a centre-half.
Arnesen had suggested a move was more likely for the Holland international in the summer, with Paulo Ferreira and Jose Bosingwa potential departures from Stamford Bridge. The club have taken up an option on a fourth year on Bosingwa’s contract, though that would at least allow them to recoup a fee for the full-back rather than lose him under the Bosman ruling in July.
It remains to be seen whether the club would be willing to listen to offers for Daniel Sturridge and Yuri Zhirkov, a player whose time in England has been frustrated by injuries and the presence of Ashley Cole as the team’s first-choice left-back. Yet the mistakes made last summer, when five senior players were allowed to depart and the onus largely placed on academy graduates to fill the void, will not be repeated with further reinforcements expected.
Players such as the Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, the Lille midfielder Eden Hazard, the Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez and Anderlecht’s Romelu Lukaku have been assessed extensively by Chelsea’s scouting department. In the case of the last of that quartet, the Belgian club’s general manager, Herman Van Holsbeeck (17), claimed tentative contact had been made last month over the striker’s potential availability.
Certainly the current squad feel galvanised by Abramovich’s willingness to spend as much on Monday as he had in the years since Jose Mourinho left in the autumn of 2007. “To sign Torres and Luiz is a huge statement by the club,” John Terry said in the wake of Tuesday’s 4-2 victory at Sunderland.
Guardian Service
