Premier league: Chelsea sign Israeli midfielder Yossi Benayoun
Chelsea signed the 30 year old ex-West Ham man for around 6 million pounds on July 2nd 2010, Benayoun renowned for his dribbling skill and positional versatility will be Chelsea’s first signing of the summer.
However, it is unclear why they have signed a player who is in the twilight of his career and was averaged at best during his time with Liverpool and West Ham. Maybe, Chelsea have signed him up to replace Belletti, Ballack or Joe Cole, who left Chelsea this summer.
But fans are still confused as to why Benayoun has been brought him because Ballack and Joe Cole were clearly better players than him in the previous two seasons. Cole whose last season at Chelsea was plagued with injury was not offered a new contract whereas Ballack who played off and on for Chelsea in his last season at the club was also not offered a new contract by the club.
Benayoun can play as either a winger in a 4-3-3 formation or behind the main striker in a limited number ten role. His main weakness is his lack of pace with the ball and the absence of power behind most of his shots.
It will be interesting to see where Carlo Ancelotti plays Benayoun in his lineup, whether he will be limited to a role from the bench or start most of the matches still remains to be seen by Chelsea and football fans alike.
During his time at Liverpool, Benayoun made 126 appearances for the club and scored 28 goals for the Merseyside club. It is clear that he is not being bought to score goals for the club as his previous goal scoring record is not that impressive.
Benayoun’s first premier league club was West Ham United, Chelsea’s London rivals. He played 72 times for the London club and scored only 8 goals during his stay there. Benayoun was bought by West Ham in the year 2005 when he was only 25 years old; he transferred to England from the Spanish club Racing de Santander where he featured 101 times and scored 21 goals.
Before his time in Spain, Benayoun played in his native country Israel for Maccabi Haifa and scored 55 goals in 130 goals. Benayoun started his professional career at Hapoel Be’er Sheva where he made only 25 appearances but scored 15 times. He only spent a year at the club.
Chelsea are still in the transfer market and are looking to further strengthen their squad in order to challenge the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal. The present English champions will be looking to retain the premier league crown which was won by them last season after losing out to Manchester United in the title race for three years in a row.
The main targets of Chelsea football club are a few specific players, most of them are either strikers which will add support or backup to Anelka or Drogba, or defensive midfielders who will add further quality to the Chelsea midfield and might feature instead of the Nigerian playmaker Obi Mikel.
Chelsea look especially interested in another Liverpool player Javier Mascherano, who has been outstanding in his displays for the red half of Merseyside. Chelsea will have to fight off interest from Spanish champions Barcelona for the Argentineans signature.
Benayoun released a statement regarding his move to Chelsea saying that he thinks it is every players dream to play for such a team as Chelsea, he rates them as a giant club. He also hoped that the approaching season would be successful for them.
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