Some of the stuff mentioned below were not published in Official Chelsea website nor did Jose Mourinho or Peter Kenyon call me on my handphone to inform me. These are stuff doing rounds in the internet in some reputed news websites. Now I think I can start.

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, Tal, 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.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Here it is – all that you wanted and you always wanted.

Chelsea have made a 14m pound bid for Sevilla right back Daniel Alves. Though we we seem to have some competition with a small club called Real Madrid, reports say that we are about to clinch it. This could be a cash deal or a deal that includes Khalid. Either way, I’d be so relieved.

Alves is a brilliant all-round players could be a vastly improved version of Diarra – great pace and superb skills, very effective in attack but not the complete defender as such. Not trying to undermine his capabilities but his attacking instincts do reduce his defensive attributes a wee bit that he can even be used as a right winger. I’d say Ashley is better at left back than Daniel Alves at right back, you know what I mean?

Guardian Unlimited’s Sid Lowe is obviously a fan of Alves:

But then Dani Alves is no ordinary right-back. He has played at right-back, right-midfield, left-back, left-midfield, central midfield and in St Petersburg last season even played up front – winning a penalty and providing an assist. He plays everywhere – and in the same game, too. He is, says this morning’s AS: “Three players in one: a central midfield playmaker with a winger’s soul who plays at full-back.” He is a one-man band, a phenomenal athlete who screams and tears round the pitch like a hyperactive child, a Roberto Carlos for the right. Only Alves can defend. In fact, he can be a right horrible little bastard when he wants to, diving and kicking and tugging to his heart’s content. It’s no coincidence that as well as topping the assists charts, he leads the way in yellow cards and fouls. In short, Alves can do everything.

Also there is this bid on Royston Drenthe, the Dutch teenager who had a great U21 Euro Cup. He is also a right back. If we end up getting both Alves and Drenthe, that might mean exit for Ferreira for sure. You might already know that Geremi has moved to Newcastle. Good for him and good for Sam.

The Sun says that Barca would bid for Lampard today and quite funnily also that Chelsea would reject the bid. It’s strange sometimes how the Press always are a couple of moves ahead when it comes to publishing news.

I wonder how the free-flowing high-skilled team of one touch genius with style, that is Barcelona, is waiting in the queue for a dry, straight, hard labour Frank Lampard. With this kind of hyper tension on the Lampard situation, our ex-boss Ranieri has given us some relief that he won’t be interested in Lampard for Juventus.

I’m slowly getting this feeling that Lampard might be on his way out. Though our Malouda deal is still in the balance (as Madrid entered the fray), I see that Jose Mourinho has been hinting in more than on way that he would go back to his tried and tested 4-3-3. Considering that we have already addressed our problems with defence, in 4-3-3, he can certainly lots of options such as Essien, Mikel, Makelele, Sidwell, Ballack and Diarra.

With Essien, Mikel and Sidwell occupying the centre of the pitch, you have a midfield that works like a machine, never loses possession and wins the ball with vengeance. Add to this, a forward line with flair consisting of Drogba, Sheva, Joe Cole, Robben, Kalou and possibly Malouda. This is futher supported by the enterprising wing backs in Cole, Bridge and possibly Alves who have between them a solid central defence of Terry, Carvalho, Tal and Alex. So, it is quite possible for Jose to see life after Lampard. Let’s see, everything should be clear by the end of this week.

Robben deal is still not through yet, Real Madrid once again proving to be villains. So, that’s Real Madrid being a thorn in three Chelsea deals. I honestly and unbiasedly feel that we would come out on top in all three deals by beating Madrid but it appears we might lose to their arch rivals. We have clinch all these four deals very soon. If we have Lampard, Robben, Alves and Malouda, we are very much on course to regain our title.

This post was originally published on Blue Champions on 04-July-2007.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

During the season, we always talked about why this was a completely wrecked campaign. We’ve experienced all those Murphy’s laws in just one season. I’ve just grouped below the major reasons in my opinion, that have resulted in Chelsea ending up 6 points lesser than Man Utd.

Injuries