An interest week at Stamford Bridge, that has seen two youngsters leave and a bid accepted for a third plus lots of gossip surrounding management, star players and prospective purchases.
So the week’s gossip started with rumours in the Sun about Michael Mancienne being poised to join Hamburg – A deal that was concluded later in the week and means he will link up with the ex-Blues’ Sporting Director Frank Arnesen.
In the Daily Mail on Tuesday, there was a report suggesting Zenit St Petersburg wanted to swap defender Bruno Alves for Alex but it was rejected.
Meanwhile, the Mirror alleged that Roman Abramovich is keen to keep Didier Drogba but would be open to offloading Nicolas Anelka.
Reports on Thursday in the Sun said that it was starting to look like Guus Hiddink is prepared to leave his position with Turkey and take the managerial job at Chelsea.
The Daily Mail led with the story that Chelsea had seen their bid for the talented Javier Pastore rejected by Palermo who are looking for £44m – The in-demand Argentine is wanted by a host of clubs including Manchester City.
The Daily Mirror focused on a possible exit, reporting that AC Milan want to sign Didier Drogba, but if they fail then they will switch their attention to Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor. As we reported earlier in the week, the time could be right to sell the Ivorian.
On Saturday, ex-Blues’ boss Jose Mourinho is preparing to take Uefa to court over his five-game touchline ban from European matches following the semi-final with Barcelona – the Real hierarchy are unlikely to be happy with further negative press created by the Special One.
Bad news in the Metro as they stated that long-term target Brazilian striker Neymar could stay in with his club Santos for another season if not longer.
And finally, in the Sunday Mirror there is an interesting rumour that both Guus Hiddink and Mark Hughes could form a managerial partnership at the Bridge – This option is likely to appeal to all Chelsea fans.
By Scott Balaam
Twitter @theshed11