It’s been fairly typical this transfer window. We’ve let young players go on loan. We’re looking desparately land some players but they are holding us to ransom. We say that there won’t be any big purchases because Roman has tightened the purse but still get linked to some big money names. It’s typical.
On the topic of David Luiz, I’ve gone through a cycle of emotion, like it happened to me with many players – Robinho, Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Dani Alves, David Silva, Alex Pato, Neymar, Kaka and the list goes on. Some of them are players that we really pursued and some of them were pursued by the Press on our behalf. Being a gullible football civilian, I fall for the trick, every single time. I keep telling myself that I shouldn’t fall for the tabloid bait but then heart takes over head, hope takes over logic. May be I’m easily excited when it comes to possible Chelsea transfers. I start following the players’ progress and try to interpret every damn thing that happens around them. I let the excitement build up only to find that we didn’t manage to sign them or we were never in it.
With David Luiz, I thought we wouldn’t go for such an expensive defensive option especially because we will get Alex back. We have Bruma and Patrick as well. Once I realised we are chasing David, I was into the civilian cycle – checking his youtube videos, checking the Benfica website, checking our website every hour, searching in twitter, downloading his best pictures, reading every profile of his in the website – I’ve fallen for it, once again.
It’s not over yet, though. Benfica has officially announced that negotiations are going on with Chelsea. Chelsea have managed to obtain a work permit for David Luiz already. I hope what’s delaying the signing is the modern day complexities of joint ownership of the player, image rights, agents and such stuff. At this stage, I was preparing for a welcome post for David Luiz. And then, this continued for a day only to find a rumour that Man City is in. What the heck? Why oh why? I can’t take another heart break. It’s not that I’m desparate for a David Luiz or desparate for even a defender, it’s just that I’m so taken into the belief that David Luiz is a Chelsea player and now I don’t want that to change.
There is also this rumour about Arshavin being tracked by Chelsea. How I’d love that! I like Arshavin and I think he is a fantastic player who doesn’t have the motivation to play for Arsenal anymore. Of late, he’s been poor but I think he is a high-impact player that perfectly fits into Chelsea.
And then, I hear about Chelsea having bid for Torres, again! I don’t quite understand why. With Torres, we would have to play 4-4-2 only. That means we may not need wingers. I’m happy with us playing a 4-4-2 diamond. Carlo knows that formation like the back of his hand. He’s had a lot of success with that. But Torres once again? I’d love have Torres here but the key thing is, are you telling me we have another 40m to spend over and above the 25-30m we are spending on David Luiz. And this is January. And Roman is supposed to have stopped spending big money. Anyway, the Chelsea bid for Torres is official, coming from a Liverpool spokesman.
With 4-4-2, Arshavin can play in the hole. Look at the prospect of Drogba and Torres, supported by Arshavin. Anelka might have to sit out and Malouda would also be impacted as we could play Essien in holding midfield and the central midfield would be Lampard and Ramires. In the hole is Arshavin. It can’t be more perfect than this! We need to start crossing better with Fernando Torres in the box. Do we have good crossers? Oh wait, here I go again!
Now, I don’t want to fall into this trap, I’m not. You can’t take me for a ride. I won’t waste time when it’s just a rumour. I’II will wait for the official announcement on the transfers. Until then, I’ll live on youtube, twitter, official websites of Arsenal, Liverpool, Benfica, official pages of Arshavin, Torres, David Luiz, optastats of these players, career stats of these players from soccernet, archives on these players on BBC football, make changes my Chelsea team in my winning eleven . . . . .




The story is not true. Who is the ‘Liverpool spokesman’ the press keep referring to, some fan? Chelsea would never go for Torres. They are looking for young players that will remain for many years to come. And they would not pay that amount for someone who is so injury prone. They have those problems already. Ancelotti has made it clear that Luiz is their only buy in this transfer window, and Benfica have confirmed it.
Gary! You’re right. There’s no official confirmation from Liverpool. Check this from my tweets:
Isn’t that a bit fishy? I’m reading anything into it but it’s certainly unusual that their rumours section does not pick up this big rumour on Torres but has got the other Liverpool-related rumours on.
Dis article is based on fantasy.arshavin,torres,and ‘a good crosser’ can’t b in chelsea 4 now.what do u mean we don’t need torres.get a f***ing life.official:torres is better than drogba.
Woke up this morning and all hell has broken loose. I guess there’s never a dull moment in my beloved CFC. Torres? I dont know guys. Either the club is trying to rebuild the team or some journo out there is really messing with us BIG TIME. I know our Club hierarchy consider Torres quite highly indeed but surely they should know Loserpool wont release him for anyone, unless he puts in a transfer request. I am just hoping at least the Luiz deal is completed ASAP. should b an interesting summer ahead of us.
Luiz…it’s an ongoing saga..but I think it will happen as they desperately need a central defender …Torres at his best is great but he has had a lot of imjuries and if you spend 50 to 60 million then you want someone who is going to play lots of games..I think they were just testing the waters with Torres..to see if they got any bites and hoped they might get lucky…but the bottom line is the squad needs rebuilding…but at this point it’s going to be at the end of the season…except for Luiz
This seems to be official enough:
“Chelsea have made a bid for Fernando, which has been turned down. The player is not for sale,” a Liverpool spokesman told BBC Sport.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/9378995.stm
Guys! it’s gone totally crazy out there today! Where is David Luiz?
DAVID LUIZ! didn’t happen. We Are Screwed!! Someone must be fired!
BC,its the Chels!What else do you expect other than Glorious unpredictability!Staying with the topic,According to reports Torres will hand in a transfer request later this afternoon.But then again,these are just “reports”
i doubt we will get Torres too. And we’ve let the kids too go out on loan. We messed up big time. Benfica r holding out for more money from City, probably in the summer. The squad is now super thin. Carlo wanted David Luiz. Expect the tabloids to have a field day with us. And we play Everton tomorrow. Damn, just when we needed some good news.
BC good post But I got no idea what chelsea is doing They are senting all the youth on loan and is not even buying anyone. It seems like Luiz deal is off and Torres or Arshavin in no way will come to Chelsea. But is their something fishy going in the Chelsea backdoor. Roman is a businessman and he will surely do great business I think may be Chelsea have a huge surprise for us before transfer window close .I think they must have reached an agreement with athletico for aguero and godin(Just my imagination) .But what if none of this happened and Carlo have to do with what he has and is HIT BY ANOTHER INJURY “Season is over”. But still I imagine that this will never occur and Chelsea will sign Aguero , godin or kjear or Luiz and sanchez.(Again Its my Imagination).
Everything is so crazy. I couldn’t understand the current Chelsea policy..
Everything is so crazy. I couldn’t understand the current Chelsea policy..
David Luiz deal is off…
Excellent post, BC. Really shows your heart. Good stuff.
I’ve long since taken all the rumors with a painful pinch of salt. Fleet street needs to bolster sagging circulation numbers and one of their favorite ways to do it is invent transfer scenarios. Most of them are complete fiction. I applaud their imagination, though!
The Luiz deal is true, of course. Personally, I don’t think it’s dead yet. Can’t really put it to bed until the transfer window formally closes. He’s good value at 23 years of age and £45,000 a week. So we sits and we waits….
Sounds like the Torres bid isn’t Ancelotti’s idea. More Arnesen at work? Or more likely, a mad Ambramovich splurge a la Andriy Shevchenko £30 million disaster? One does wonder about the money issue (although I see the actual offer may have been closer to £28 million than the wilder numbers mentioned in some reports.) Super talented, but 26 and injury-prone. Risky business.
The Arshavin rumor sounds like a Fleet Street concoction. He’s 29 years old. He himself says he may have lost his pace due to age. He’s not playing well. The only thing to fuel this rumor is that he’s Russian. But this would be bad business all around. I don’t believe a word of it.
ps Call him what you will, but Arnesen has been in charge of all football operations for Chelsea in a clear divide of responsibilities, with Gourlay running the business side. http://bit.ly/ff0YyC
I think Liverpool just made themselves a nice deal.
€26 million for a 24 year-old chronic goal scorer.
Torress ….
It is too late to persuade Liverpool … If I read this news 7 to 10 days ago, I could see Torres in Chelsea shirt but less than 3 days to the end of transfer window , it is not easy …
I am gald that Carlo or whoever is pursuing Torres realized Chelsea should start playing with 2 strikers upfront. As I said repeatedly 4-3-3 days are gone for us. we have no stable winger anymore so we should adopt to what we have.
HAHAHAHAHA WOW!
Look what the rumour mill has landed. Even the one of Liverpool’s website.
Fernando Torres has handed in a transfer request after Liverpool refused to continue talks with Chelsea over him. With Suarez now set to join Liverpool, Torres is more likely to leave and play the UCL football he has desired for years. Chelsea will need to make a bid of atleast 50m and pay 110k+ in wages for the Spaniard goalscoring machine.
How you feeling “Blue?”
What next? Chelsea bid for Aguero? Oh wait… It just goes on and on and on. My god, Platini has really screwed us. I told you guys, we may get lucky but don’t expect too high, because you will depressed deeply if you don’t win. We may have to wait 2 years without Championships, maybe Carling Cup next 2 years and probably some FA Cups will do. We must hurry though, don’t want to go 21 years without a EPL title.
So it seems to me, that the David Luiz is off. Now as i read your comments, many of you seem to be doubting Chelsea’s transfer policies.
As much as I would have liked to have seen David Luiz in Chelsea, being a highly rated defender and has a bright future, Im glad to see that Chelsea standing their ground and not being bullied around. It seems to me that our transfer policies have changed, but for the better. Benfica were asking a bit too much for David Luiz and considering he is only 23, it is not worth to pay as much as we did for Shevchenko, am i wrong?
So is it wrong for Chelsea to refuse to pay that much? Absolutely not. Considering the new financial fair plays which are soon to be integrated into the sport, I think Chelsea are being smart by actually controlling the cash flow.
You should be reading the Benfica blogs online, fans are not at all happy about not being able to sell David Luiz, and they know they club is in big debt. Its their loss, not ours.
Moving on, Torres. Very interesting to read from the official website of Liverpool FC, that the striker has handed in a transfer request. I would love to have him at Chelsea and it is quite obvious that he is not happy at liverpool anymore. Sure we would have to change our formations, tactics etc, but believe me, it is definitely worth it.
Although I have developed a natural tendency not to believe transfer talk, as none has ever come to fruition, I can hardly resist imagining the sheer firepower Chelsea would wield with Drogba and Torres leading attacks. Although Drogba is a Chelsea legend and no one, myself included, wants to think of his departure, his age is rapidly advancing, and there will come a time in the near future where he will be simply too old to play anymore. Torres obviously is a different kind of striker, but potentially he could be a strike partner and then a long-term replacement for Didier. Of course, it would certainly be more rational to wait for the news of the actual signing to imagine the silverware that would come raining down with Torres in Chelsea blue, but I simply cannot resist.
Luiz off..on..off.on..now off…Torres on..knocked back..now he’s put in a transfer request…both with a couple of days to happen before the transfer window closes…both would be great but then paying too much becomes another issue or with Torres his injury history adds another risk..the plus iside: they are 23 and 26 years old, both definite first teamers …who can be world class match winners on their day and who can still grow as players…Ambromvich should go for it unless it involves crazy money…if we miss out now ..both players will leaving their clubs come summer
ChelsiFan, I agree with you that Chelsea shouldn’t be held hostage. they’ve resisted that for a few years now. that being said, i think the problem with the Luiz deal is that Benfica need all the money at once and Chelsea want to spread it out over more than financial year. That makes sense from both sides, i guess. Benfica need money now and Chelsea want to avoid red ink as they seek to balance their budget.
You know, I remember reading that van Aanholt’s loan was conditional on a defender (presumably Luiz) coming aboard. But I guess that report was wrong, as there’s been no mention of it anywhere else.
I see that Zhirkov is close to a return. He can play fullback. In fact, he might have played more games at fullback than midfield for Chelsea, no?
Yawn…….. Roman…. wake me up if something real hap………….. yawn ………… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Wake me up when Transfer Market closes…
This transfer market is killing me.
50m release clause + Anelka = 60m. What a deal, I think Chelsea should go for it. Why?
Anelka is 5 years older than Torres and is already faltering.
Torres + Drogba = Literally an orgasm
Torres is deadlier than Anelka
Torres is exactly the kind of pace and finishing we need right now.
Torres would force a 4-4-2 and make Carlo experiment.
Torres only played Group Stages for Europa and can play UCL.
Come on so many positives plus this one.
WE WOULD NOT HAVE TO SEE A NAKED 50 YEAR OLD!
Tremayne Craigg,
I do not like this deal for several reasons
1. Torres is not worth 60m. Torres is out of form and he does not want to stay in Liverpool, so Liverpool has no choice but to get rid of him ASAP, rather than keeping a sad striker in its squad. so why 60m? City got Dzeck and Chelsea i s the only club who can pay Torres salary,so Chelsea can easilly close the deal in summer with much less than that. Even if the other club buys him, we have not lost anythnig,
2. 60M, with this money, we can buy two world class players, each 30 M. you can bring 4 good players each 15 M.
3. Do not underestimate Anelka. Neighbor’s grass is always greener for people. Anelka has one of the highest shoot accuracy in EPL. He is older but he has not done yet. Anelka is capable of playing in Wing and striker.
4. Player respect. I always hate when clubs put forward their players as a part of deal. This means clubs have no respect for their players. When you do this to Anelka, others will think we will be next. I never like these types of deals unless theplayer himslef is happy.
I like Torres, but 50M + Anelks , sorry it is too much.
David Luiz, I am glad the deal is off, Benfica was greedy. First of all Luiz is playing in a cheesy portugese league [As Mourinho said] , so no gurantee he succeeds in tough leagues. 23 y.o. and has not won any major trophy or award. Sorry, Benfica keeps ir for yourself ….
I thought Luiz was a done deal..but now certainly off as Benefica wanyted everything including Chelseas tea lady…then comes Torrres offer..plenty of headlines but now today quiet…I’m starting to think this is going to happen…but I’d still keep Anelka..if he stays fit..he will be great value
Gary,
and Benfiza also said “The deal is iff”