Paulo Ferreira

CHELSEA SIGN SALAH

Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea has confirmed the signing of Basel’s winger Mohamed Salah who also was a target of Liverpool but with a price tag of around €16 million it was Chelsea who approached faster and secured the services of the 21 years old player.

A statement released by Chelsea club said: “Chelsea can confirm an agreement has been reached with FC Basel for the transfer of their 21-year-old attacking midfielder Mohamed Salah. The move is subject to the Egyptian international agreeing personal terms and completing a medical examination.”

Liverpool was one of the 1^st Premier League clubs to take an interest in Salah as they had scouted the forward extensively and hoped to add him into their main squad but after only managing to make a bid of around €9 million, they lost the chance on signing Salah from Basel.

Salah is expected to be a replacement of Juan Mata who will be joining Manchester United on a €37 million deal. Although it has come to the attention that if Salah will be able to get more time on the pitch than Juan Mata, it all ultimately will be decided by Jose Mourinho who seemed to have had a dispute or disagreement with Mata which was one of the main reasons on why the Portuguese coach decided on having the midfielder spent more time on the sidelines then on the playing grounds despite having more than enough talent and quality.

Michael Essien’s agent is having talks with Ac.Milan as they are believed to be discussing a loan move for the defensive midfielder out of Chelsea and into the Italian side, Ac.Milan. Essien has only made 2 league appearances under Jose Mourinho and he wants to get more playing time.

CHELSEA CHASE BENTEKE

The newly appointed Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, is set to make a bid for Christian Benteke who has recently handed a transfer request to his club Aston Villa.

Benteke had joined Villa at the start of the last season. He made his mark in his debut season at Villa Park by scoring 23 goals in 39 appearances and was likely to continue, but, he shocked everyone by requesting for transfer.

The manager of Aston Villa, Paul Lambert, has also admitted that he had not expected a transfer request from Benteke.

When asked about Benteke’s transfer request, Lambert said, “Well, we hadn’t expected that. Christian was a big part of our plans and we wanted him to stay. We are all disappointed that he has requested for transfer. But, it’s part and parcel of professional football. If a player doesn’t want to stay, you can’t do anything about it.”

After taking over as Chelsea manager, Mourinho is keen to bring a quality striker at Stamford Bridge. He had made a bid of 40 million Pounds for Edinson Cavani, but, the Uruguayan international seems to be interested in joining Paris Saint-Germain.

Mourinho was interested in Borussia Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski as well, but, the Polish striker has made it clear now that he doesn’t want to leave Dortmund this summer.

The Blues also had Wayne Rooney on their radar and they were reported to have made an enquiry for him as well. But, after David Moyes’ statement that Rooney hasn’t been put on sale, the Blues don’t seem to have any chance there either.

So, after missing out on all these big names, Mourinho is looking for Benteke now. However, he is not alone in this race. The Spurs are also said to be interested in signing the 22 years old Belgian international.

DESERVED WIN

Chelsea interim manager Rafa Benitez has said that his team got the deserved result in the form of a late winner from defender David Luiz in the Europa league semi-final match against FC Basel. Chelsea have moved into a commanding position as a result of the 2-1 victory over the Swiss club, but it could have been easily a draw had it not been for the injury time goal from Luiz. Chelsea dominated the proceedings in the match by creating several chances, while also close to scoring with many of them.

However, lacklustre finishing from the likes of Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres proved like a major catastrophe after Basel equalised with a penalty with just a few minutes remaining in the match. Chelsea were awarded a freekick just inside the box in the dying minutes of the match. David Luiz converted this freekick to hand Chelsea are huge advantage in the tie. As a result of the two away goals coupled with the victory, Chelsea are now the favourites to qualify for the Europa league final where they could face Fenerbahce. The Turkish club managed a victory from the encounter against Portuguese club Benfica.

Victor Moses had given Chelsea the lead early in the match. Benitez said that this victory was fully deserved.

“I think it’s true that we had this feeling that we didn’t deserve to concede this goal, which was an extra motivation. Sometimes you know David Luiz is really good taking free-kicks, even if the keeper could have saved it, but he scored the goal in the end and everyone would say it was fair. All around me nobody felt that it was a penalty because the ball was in the air, it was a very strange decision,” said Benitez after the match. Chelsea will face Swansea during the weekend.