We are just entering the last lap of the transfer race, as we would like to have most of them fixed before we set off for US in about 10 days. Alex would join us for the tour, subject to the completion of paper work, which is great news. We’d never get short on defence this season, it seems – Terry, Ricardo, Paulo, Cole, Alex, Haim, Bridge and probably Drenthe, with Essien and Diarra as remote back ups, that is if all the defenders are stretchered off on the same day, which I can’t rule out.

Telegraph sees us as the front runners to get Pato’s signature. With his two goals against South Korea this week in the U20 world cup, he is only increasing the anxiety and restlessness in me. Having come so close, I don’t want this deal to slip off. I don’t care who he plays for in his playstation as long as he plays for us on the pitch.

That said, I’m concerned how this would impact the development of Sinclair and Sahar. May be when Drogba and Sheva leave, will we have Kalou, Sahar, Sinclair & Pato?! They are exciting prospects and I want to see more of Sinclair and Sahar in the domestic cup matches this season. I’m sure that would be the plan too as we will concentrate more on league and champions league this time.

The latest on Malouda is that we are still trying to land him while he has returned to training with Lyon. There could be a meeting between Chelsea and Lyon officials this week and Kenyon is keen to have Malouda in the team for our US tour. He also said that there are no offers for any of the Chelsea players, which is a pleasant surprise. What about those things Roman Calderon has been talking? Well, the Real Madrid officials run a rumor mill of their own and are an absolute delight for Spanish Press. I just hope that their talk on Robben is also one of “we tried our best to land XYZ” to be used for their elections.

Chelsea have insisted that any offers for Lampard or Terry would be rejected. And as of now we are hopeful of getting their signatures before the start of the new season. All said and done, both of them have another couple of years in their contract; there is no hurry to have the contract signed in the next few days and they can sign later on too.

Tevez’s transfer continues to be a superb case study in football transfers and it’s sure to keep the attorneys busy for some more months. Now, the rumoured move of Tevez to Man Utd seems to be at risk, with FA more getting ready to complicate the issue even further. To me, Tevez to Man Utd sounds more like Henry to Barca, considering how and where he would fit in (considering that Saha would be able to walk on his own).

After roping in about a dozen of promising youngsters, Chelsea inaugurated a new 20m pound training facility yesterday. This impressive modern training facility in Cobham is built on 140 acres and has 30 football pitches of which 6 pitches to highest Premiership standard replicating Stamford Bridge. This is just another indication of Roman’s long term vision with Chelsea. We needed to spend money in the market to launch ourselves in the European stage but now the club concentrates on the future by investing in youth and academy.

Hopefully, there’ll be some concrete news in a few days. Catch you later with more stuff later on.