- Jun 9, 2003
- 8,337
- 21,678
It seems that every time we look like we are going anywhere as a club someone comes in and taps up and steals our best player. It happened with Carrick and Berbatov and now Chelsea have unsettled Modric with their derisory bid. We know that complaining to the FA will get us nowhere so is there anything we can do?
This time I think the answer is yes. Chelsea have a new manager in Villas-Boas and it is quite likely that he will want to raid his old club Porto for a couple of players as most managers historically do. The most obvious candidate is Radamel Falcao. I think we should bid £40M for Falcao.
Admittedly this is probably £12M more than Levy would like to pay but it is a realistic price for a player who is showing in the Copa America that last seasons Wafer Cup form was no fluke. More to the point it's probably £15M more than Chelsea expect to pay for him.
There are 2 possible outcomes:
1/ Porto reject the bid or the player turns down the move.
This is the most likely scenario but at least Porto will expect Chelsea to match our bid if they want the player. We might only have pushed the price up by £10-15M but at least we have caused them some irritation in return at no cost to ourselves. In addition we send out a message that we are intent on at least trying to sign the very best players available which should at least reduce the idea among the squad that we have no ambition to compete at the very top level.
2/ We are successful and sign Falcao.
We have solved our major striking problem. Opinions may differ as to whether Falcao is the answer but although many might prefer a Llorente or a Rossi I doubt many would be devasted at us signing 'El Tigre'. We will be a more attractive proposition for other signings and if we sign another striker other clubs won't be able to screw us for silly money as we will have lost our 'air of desperation'. In addition Porto will have a nice full bank balance so any other players of theirs that Villas-Boas fancies will cost the Chavs that bit more.
Thoughts?
This time I think the answer is yes. Chelsea have a new manager in Villas-Boas and it is quite likely that he will want to raid his old club Porto for a couple of players as most managers historically do. The most obvious candidate is Radamel Falcao. I think we should bid £40M for Falcao.
Admittedly this is probably £12M more than Levy would like to pay but it is a realistic price for a player who is showing in the Copa America that last seasons Wafer Cup form was no fluke. More to the point it's probably £15M more than Chelsea expect to pay for him.
There are 2 possible outcomes:
1/ Porto reject the bid or the player turns down the move.
This is the most likely scenario but at least Porto will expect Chelsea to match our bid if they want the player. We might only have pushed the price up by £10-15M but at least we have caused them some irritation in return at no cost to ourselves. In addition we send out a message that we are intent on at least trying to sign the very best players available which should at least reduce the idea among the squad that we have no ambition to compete at the very top level.
2/ We are successful and sign Falcao.
We have solved our major striking problem. Opinions may differ as to whether Falcao is the answer but although many might prefer a Llorente or a Rossi I doubt many would be devasted at us signing 'El Tigre'. We will be a more attractive proposition for other signings and if we sign another striker other clubs won't be able to screw us for silly money as we will have lost our 'air of desperation'. In addition Porto will have a nice full bank balance so any other players of theirs that Villas-Boas fancies will cost the Chavs that bit more.
Thoughts?