Following my earlier article on the ‘Summer Conundrum’ that football fans around the globe suffer from, I’m now going to continue my rant and continue to look at some of the crazy stories floating around.
Every club has a different story at the moment, Liverpool are chasing every English Under 21 star with a £20m cheque in the bag, then there is City who are running around as with Sheikh Mansour’s money burning a hole in their pocket as they aim to become possible World beaters as they assemble a 100 member squad !!
When it comes to the big Spanish clubs Barca are trying to create a inter-galactic pool of strikers whilst Real Madrid are currently being shrewd under the leadership of Jose Mourinho.
Mine and your concern however is Chelsea, after the humiliating last matchday draw against Newcastle United every newspaper , site and football pundit declared Roman Abramovich was going to sanction a blues makeover.
The result meant that the club have linked with every possible player on the planet, along with astronomical figures have been quoted. It has been reported that our transfer budget 80 million, 100 million or even 150 million – truly insane but now after almost two months who have we signed? How many have we signed ?
Absolutely none, all these rumour to date have been for nothing, some might point out that we were without a manager for that period but if there wasn’t a replacement lined up then why fire Carlo in the first place, especially in such a very distasteful manner. We must not forget that the ex-Milan coach gave us our first historic double in his first season then he was treated like that.
As I move on, let’s forget all that and focus on transfer strategy, as I look in I don‘t think we seem to have one, so far the way our transfers are being conducted can be best described as shocking!!!
A prime example of this is the way we handled the Modirc bid, by offering 22 million it clearly insulted Spurs, had we gone straight in with 30 million offer Spurs would have said we want 40 and in the end the deal would have been thrashed out for between 35- 40 after negotiations – but no, we tried to be too clever and now our London rivals have said they will not sell to us. Many of you may feel that I am very pessimistic, the type of person who sees the glass half empty but in reality I do not feel there is any water in this glass!!
I think blues have not been decisive and extensive enough when scouting new blood, negotiations and policy making – Sadly, this window has not been any different. Look at Spanish powerhouses Barca and Real who have made their share of mistakes but by moving quickly and smartly they have brought in the likes of Ozil (15m ) , Afellay (3.5m …. Yes, just 3.5 for such a talented player) , and David Villa (34m – whilst a lot of money a real masterstroke) …. it just shows how proper planning and research can save you a fortune !!
I hope we all find a way out of this mess and emerge gloriously – That is all I can wish and hope.
By Rahul Tanwar
Its a long time since Chelsea has been any wise fox in the transfer market. They always bullied around splashing the cash.. bt now it seems Roman's oil wells r drying out and ManCity has taken up Chelsea's position in the market.. no wonder they had to bid low for Modric coz they surely cant stump tht much money.. and not to forget the fair play rules coming up frm UEFA whr clubs hav to suffice frm wat they earn…
anyways the xamples given frm yur front on 'decisive' and 'xtensive' signings arent so… Barca signed Afeilay when he had jus 6 months left in his contract wid Ajax.. he cud hav come for free in the summer… Also they paid so much to get Villa knowing that Valencia wr in a financial mess.. a more apropriate xample wud hav been Inter getting Eto'o plus cash for wantaway striker Ibrahimovich or Milan takin Ibrahimovich away frm Barca or Milan buyin Robinho or Tottenham buyin Van Der Vaaart for jus 8 mill… I wud call such signings as economic and effective…
@ANIKET … thanks for the comment …. i wud like to clarify why i did not mention spurs signing vdw or milan signing robinho …. thats because .. spurs n milan have n't been known to … spend humongous amounts on players like the 50mil chelsea spent on torres or … d 80 mil real spent on ronaldo or d 40+ mil barca spent on ibra !! …. and i wanted to focus on how these guys (the two spanish superpowers) wised up … and mended their ways ….
and secondly … afellay did not sign during that 6 month period you mentioned … he was signed in november ..well before jan transfer window … and barca did so …. to avoid possible war against all the big clubs who would have been interested in signing him !!
thirdly … maybe roman can still pump money into … chelsea… (even the dried up oil wells as you said !! ) .. torres and luiz signing in jan are testimonial to it !!!….
i hope i satisfied u with my answers !!!…
You are putting your feet in my own mouth now. First I would need to also clarify that yur notion of Tottenham and Milan not being big spenders is false. Not long ago did Milan sign Ronaldinho on a mega-money deal. They even gambled on flop striker Huntelaar. Not just in buying players, they showed their high-handedness in selling players for cheap.. Youan Gourcuff to be precise whom they sold to Bordeaux who went to win the Ligue 1 title and then finally securing a 22m euro move to Lyon.. Tottenham thmselves hav spent huge on players lyk Bentley, Defoe, Palacios, Pavlyuchenko, Keane, Modric, Bent etc. So you nthing bein naive by sayin ths clubs arent big spenders.
Secondly, in case of Torres, signing him got you another world class striker in yur ranks bt nt the title.. infact he dint even giv Chelsea fans nething to cheer abt… tht transfer wasnt effective. Compare it wid the loan move of Ibra to Milan and Robinho signing. Milan won the Serie A.. When Eto'o moved to Inter, they had won the UCL and Seria A together and many more xamples can b given…
and Thirdly on Afeilay, its still clear tht Barca jus bullied thr way to sign him. Ajax very happily let him go 6 months earlier by xcepting 3.5m instead of losing him for free. He did give some good performances enroute to Barca's UCL n LIGA BBA wining campaign but still paying for a player whom you can get for free 6 months just coz yu want to avoid a war-bid is foolish. Probably Chelsea fans wont find sense in saving money since they r so used to sweet big money spending. But soon this money wont b cming frm Russian oil wells but frm the fan's pockets
dude i'm referin to the clubs who spend big money on a single player !!… nt big money on many players !!! and 21 mil for a former ballon d'or and world cup winning superstar ???… peanuts ( theoretically ) !! ..
secondly i never mentioned torres bein a success at stamford bridge !!!…. did i ?? ….
thirdly we'll see bout roman and oil wells and big money signings !!.. dont think we've got too used to it !!… we 've even seen d dark days of bankruptcy and second league football !!…. we aint flyin like dumb birds !!!…