Soccer: Chelsea last night completed the signing of the striker Didier Drogba from Marseille, and the Benfica midfielder Tiago Mendes is soon to finalise his £8 million move to Stamford Bridge.

Tiago underwent a medical yesterday prior to making the switch, which is understood to involve a £4 million downpayment with the balance payable in two years.

Drogba, a 26-year-old Ivory Coast international, flies to London this morning to put pen to paper on a four-year contract worth £66,350 a week after Chelsea increased their initial offer of £18.6 million to £23.8 million.

"We reached definitive agreement for Didier Drogba's transfer to Chelsea with (the chief executive) Peter Kenyon at the start of the afternoon," said the Marseille chairman Christophe Bouchet. "The player will leave for London on Tuesday.

"Didier leaves a big void, but you have to know when to be pragmatic. With this money we are going to build a better team again and bring a healthier complexion to our finances. The long-term future of the club had been in jeopardy."

The transfers, which will take the number of Jose Mourinho's imports to four, ensure the new manager's mark will be stamped on the Stamford Bridge side.

By contrast to last summer, when purchases were seldom instigated by the then manager Claudio Ranieri, rather by a committee led by Roman Abramovich and his football consultant Pini Zahavi, Mourinho has been given free rein in the transfer market.

Abramovich has backed his manager with £60 million for players whose reputations have been established only recently, and often only in their home nations. If his superiors had any concerns regarding the players' lack of experience in Europe's senior leagues, Mourinho has been able to persuade them otherwise."It is the right choice for me to go to Chelsea," said Drogba. "Neither I nor Marseille could refuse this offer from Chelsea. What truly convinced me that they wanted me was the personal telephone calls I received from Mourinho."

Middlesbrough have put in a written offer for the Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour, understood to be £2 million. The 31-year-old has a year outstanding on his contract at Highbury but has been told he will not be offered a new one and that first-team football is far from guaranteed this season.

Matters are complicated by the fact Parlour, who has been at Arsenal since leaving school and has recently been involved in a costly divorce settlement, is due a testimonial at the end of this season. It would be expected to earn him about £750,000 and this explains Middlesbrough's substantial offer for a 31-year-old with only 12 months remaining on his current deal. Boro would pay Arsenal around £1 million for Parlour with the rest going to the player.

Newcastle United have made a fresh attempt to sign Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt who is understood to be keen on a move to Tyneside and if the clubs cannot agree on a fee, he could still arrive at St James' Park on a season-long loan.

Everton look set to open their summer spending by bringing in two players from the French club Marseille. The Goodison manager David Moyes opened talks with the defender Brahim Hemdani and the midfielder Mathieu Flamini over the weekend, with a view to a £1 million double deal.

Flamini (20), has no future at Marseille after he demanded a pay increase that the club is unwilling to meet. Everton stepped up their interest in Hemdani (26), after Bolton failed to go through with a £600,000 transfer last week.