What an amazing climax for a Chelsea fan! Both the Tevez/Mascherano and Ashley Cole/Gallas transfers end up being extremely beneficial for Chelsea. Ashley Cole = William Gallas + 5m pounds. What a deal for Chelsea. Getting a young top quality world class left back for just 5m pounds and a want-away aging defender.

For all the suspense, it had to happen only with minutes to go for the closure of the transfer window. While most see this transfer as a win-win situation, I see Chelsea coming on top in this move. We all know that Arsenal wanted 25m and even 30m for Cole. May be he is the best left-back in the world (I wonder if any Arsenal fan would say this now!). Is he worth 25m? Let’s assume that Arsenal know their numbers and this could be an acceptable valuation. Then it means we have sold Gallas for 20m pounds!!! If Gallas had to be sold separately, he wouldnt have gone for more than 7m or 8m.

Ashley Cole is 25 years old and he has all of his career ahead of him. Gallas is 29 years old and might see maximum 2 more years before he seeks ‘new challenge’. Cole has one year left in his contract and Gallas too would be a free player at the end of this season. Even a 2-year old can now see that Chelsea has taken Arses for a ride in their masterplan by delaying the transfer so much that it must have been really painful for Arsenal.

Also Arsenal’s Pascal Cygan has joined Villareal. So, a lot depends on William Gallas and his determinaion and willingness to play in centre. I wish he ends up playing on the left back in Arsenal. Despite Jose Mourinho’s statement that Gallas should call a press meet and tell everyone he wants to leave Chelsea, Gallas has quietly moved across.

Why are people so frustrated about West Ham signing these Tevez & Mascherano? West Ham is a good club with these two new additions they can be anywhere between 5 and 8. Arsenal fans have nothing to crib about. If Arsenal keeps playing their crap, watch out, West Ham is on the way. While Man Utd and Arsenal fan blogs are busy framing conspiracy theories involving Chelsea/Roman’s evil hand in the deal, MSI are already planning for a take over of West Ham. Probably, now it should make more business sense to those who could not digest this.

Funnily, for some reason, Arsenal fans were so confident that Tevez and Mascherano would sign for them, they were quite a few discussions in the Arsenal fan forums/blogs, on where and how to play them, whom to leave out from the first eleven etc. So the news of their move to West Ham was a very rude shock for most of the Arsenal fans and some of the United fans.

I’m very happy that the mid-table teams are getting stronger and stronger as there will be a lot of competition from2 to 8 while we are alone at the top. I’m also happy for Tevez that he did not sign for Arsenal otherwise, his talent would be completely ruined in the Henry-centric non-shooting football of Arsenal. I hope West Ham plays well and finishes ahead of Arsenal and shut all the gunners up.