While Jose has said his squad is pretty much complete, there are two positions of concern for us here at CFCB; a back up left back, and another forward to alleviate the nerves around repeated injuries to Diego Costa and Radamel Falcao – who both look set to start against Arsenal this Sunday. Let the nail biting commence.
Poor old Felipe Luis, for one reason or another, just didn’t quite fit in with Jose’s plans and I think most Chelsea fans are happy he’s made the move back to Atletico Madrid after just one year. From what we saw of him he looked a very capable defender, but it would take something quite special to knock Cesar Azpilicueta off the team sheet. There isn’t a more capable left back in the Premier League, and perhaps Europe, and any player in that position that signs for Chelsea will surely know that a starting place is going to be few and far between – such a strange situation considering Cesar is naturally a right back, but has played so well it’s hard to see him anywhere else.
Over to Alex Telles, the 22 year old Brazilian currently earning his trade over at Galatasaray. Telles had another great season last year, playing both as a left sided defender and further up the pitch in midfield, too. His style is a combination of accurate, short quick passing, high pressure man marking and pacy runs up the wing with pinpoint crosses into the box. Telles seems like a slightly cheaper option (8 million) than the FC Augsburg defender Abdul Baba Rahman, with the German outfit demanding 15million for the young Ghanaian.
With transfer speculation around a few left backs its no secret Jose wants to get a deal wrapped up quickly – as for who it’ll be is still a mystery. Telles the Brazilian might fit in more quickly considering the number of Brazilians in the Chelsea squad and with the increasingly tighter Chelsea purse strings it might allow us to spend more money elsewhere on a forward, or perhaps to get the John Stones deal finally over the line.
