Football Update: Ron Gourlay announces no Chances of Drogba departing and Ancelotti to be given enough funds to refurnish squad
The Chief Executive of Chelsea, Ron Gourlay, has stated that he and the Chelsea board will compensate their manager Carlo Ancelotti with funds to rebuild the squad. He has stated that the Italian manager will be given enough guns so that he is able to refurnish his squad and make history in another season.
He also renounced claims by the club that there is any chance of Didier Drogba leaving the Clues for another club. He emphasized that there is no chance the Stamford Bridge would give up the star Ivory Coast captain and striker. He has expressed that other clubs would be wasting their time if they hope that the 32 year old world class striker will abandon the Blues.
Ancelotti had earlier claimed that the he had a pretty good team and did not worry much about new signings this year and even if he didn’t sign in new players, he was confident that the squad could defend their English Premier League title again.
These statements came after Chelsea refused a renewal on the contracts of Michael Ballack, Juliano Belletti and Joe Cole. However, since then they have signed in a new player, Yossi Benayoun and they still have to find in a new replacement for the midfield position that Michael Ballack held.
Benfica's midfielder the Brazilian Ramires is under consideration for that place and the Blues do seem pretty serious in signing in the star. Gourlay has stated on the signing issue, “If Carlo wants to bring a player or two into the squad then we will look at that. It has to be the right player to fit into the squad and obviously at the right price. If these things all come together then fine, we'll strengthen the squad. But only if Carlo feels it's necessary”.
On Manchester City and Chelsea trying to acquire Drogba he relayed, “Didier will be a Chelsea player next year. Didier is under contract. The thing about this time of year is we always get this. For our players to be in the news - it's normal. But Didier Drogba will be a Chelsea player next year”.
Chelsea are loaning out their players too but the Argentinean striker Franco Di Santo has been cancelled on his loan role at the Dutch Feyenoord. The hindrance in the deal is Feyenoord’s demand of Blues paying the players wage in the period when the deal is supposed to take place. The Technical Director of the club Leo Beenhakker has stated that if the club wants the deal to strike, then they would have to share the initial wage as they can’t afford the player.
Chelsea is facing a bit of a slump right now, as a large majority of their big and skilled players are out and injured, which has left the new squad to face the challenges. This too has been a reminder for Ancelotti to add some more skill and experience to his squad. The rest of the team is at the moment in the Cobham training grounds. The managing assistant Ray Wilkins is quite hopeful that the team will progress immensely in the next season.
Wilkins has stated, “Things are going great, the lads have come back in reasonably good condition and that's the modern day professional, they work extremely hard to keep themselves in good shape”.
Players like Yossi Benayoun, Alex, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba are all injured. The list also includes a couple of defenders and midfielders with minor traumas, while the rest face groin, calf and thigh injuries. Drogba is set for an operation at the moment and will have a 3 week recovery time before rehab. The rest of the squad however has reunited and are their pre season training has started.
Wilkins mentioned, “It is good to have the whole group back together. The senior boys having the World Cup makes it a tad harder on the physical aspect and we can't do some of the work with the lads that are just back because it is too physical for them”. He added, “But our aim is to get everybody ready for that first league game of the season. If we can do that then we'll have achieved our goal”.
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