Part 3: Premier League Transfers
Chelsea: Chelsea are the current champions of England. In Ancelotti’s first term with the team the manager lead the team to end Manchester United’s winning streak and take home the crown. Chelsea managed to achieve that feat last season without making any significant additions or changes to their squad.
Some might argue that they posses one of the best squads in the world of football. With players being present in abundance for almost every position on the field. Up front the team has the likes of, Drogba, Anelka and Malouda. In the middle they have players like Lampard and Essien. While at the back they have one of the strongest back lines in the league, with John Terry, Alex, Ashley Cole and Peter Cech at the goal.
The team however, had a number of players who were under performing last season and then there were players who were being drama queens and kept complaining about how they weren’t happy witht the way they were being treated. Ancelotti being the professional he is, stated that he had no room in the squad for nonsense and allowed those players to leave. The manager allowed more players to leave the squad as than those that he signed, because he felt that his squad was more than capable at retaining their title of being the best in the English Premier League.
Players who were brought in were: Ramires, Yossi Benayoun, Tomas Kalac, Majek Delac. And players who were allowed to leave include: Michael Ballack, Joe Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, Miroslav Stoch, Juliano Belletti, Jeffrey Ntuka, Deco, Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi, Liam Bridcutt, Jack Cork (L), Tomas Kalac (L), Ryan Bertrand (L), Rhys Taylor (L), Ben Gordon (L), Danny Philliskirk (L)
The manager allowed more players to go and brought in fewer players who he felt would deliver the quality and defensive cover that the team needs. He also brought in players who would be able to fill in the void when players would need to take breaks due to midweek fixtures or international friendlies.
Chelsea are quite possibly the only team right now that have a complete squad, that is in no need of any additions or changes to it. Despite that fact the one player that the team could use, would be a player to fill in for Lampard. The current replacements for Lampard are much more defensive than the English man and even though they can fill in for the player it would help the team if they managed to get an all out play maker instead.
Ancelotti has shown no real signs of wanting to pursue anyone in the dying stages of the transfer window since the manager feels that he has what he needs. The one player that got away from the team however was the Brazilian prodigy Neymar. The player was offered a place in the Chelsea squad but he turned it down. All that can be said now is that, it’s more the player’s loss than the team. At Chelsea the player could have blossomed into one of the best attacking threats in the modern game and gotten more opportunities then he would at Santos.
However the Brazilian not making the move to Stamford Bridge means that players like Kakouta would finally feel that, it is their turn to make the leap into the first team and show everyone just what they are made of.
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