Chelsea further strengthened their squad yesterday when they signed Marcel Desailly (29) for £4.6 million from AC Milan. The French international became Gianluca Vialli's second major purchase inside 24 hours when he signed for the Blues at the World Cup Centre in Paris yesterday.

Desailly who has 41 caps, who can play in defence or midfield, won the European Cup with Milan in 1994 and he aims to repeat that feat with Chelsea.

His capture takes Chelsea's spending past the £12million mark and that does not include the highly-lucrative contract Brian Laudrup signed.

Vialli is determined to mount a serious assault on the Premiership crown next season and the Chelsea board have backed that up by buying Pierluigi Casiraghi's £5.4million purchase from Lazio and Albert Ferrer's arrival from Barcelona for £2.2million.