The Transfer's – What I think

Transfer’s and should they happen?

This is my first article properly in a good while so excuse the rustiness. These are my own views and my own opinions on what should happen.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been linked with Centre Midfielders, Left Backs, Centre Backs and Strikers. This has come about from Mourinho saying he needs an overhaul of the squad, but how much of an overhaul do we actually need? A lot of people are saying we need Falcao, we need Coentrao. This annoys me really as Falcao the cost’s behind this would be astronomical and would ruin us for the FFP and for Coentrao I could write a list as long as my arm of players who would be a better option. So let’s have a look at what’s happening:

Centre Back

Now this position is up for much discussion with everyone I feel we are fine for this position we just need to rotate a bit more with there being Terry, Chahill, Ivanovic and Luiz all availble to play there. We have a lot of young players for this position. To list a few: Chalobah, Kalas, Omeruro, Ake and Christiensen. These 5 are very good young players even though Chalobah is becoming more of a Centre Midfield I still believe he can play in defence. Omeruro or Kalas are  probably the only two in this list that I feel could challenge for a starting spot if given the chance. Christiensen needs a lot more experience with Ake and Chalobah are more than likely going to become Centre Mid’s/ Defensive Mid’s. Player’s we have been linked to buy for Centre Back there’s only 3. Equilium Mangala of FC Porto, Andrea Ranocchia of Inter Milan and Kurt Zouma of St Etienne. Mangala and Ranocchia will cost at least £20million+ with Kurt Zouma costing around £13million. Zouma is the youngest out of these three at 19 with Ranocchia the oldest at 25, with Mangala being 22. Ranocchia is of course the most experienced out of the 3. Zouma has great things a head of him and is really making a name for himself in France. He is quick, tall and strong with a good reading of the game. Mangala is the same mold but tackles a lot more and gets stuck in. Ranocchia  is more of a John Terry mold and like’s to play as a sweeper and is a last line of defence type of player.

If I had to choose I would go for our Youth players especially Omeruro, I mean the trio of transfer targets are good players but I would rather stick with our own youth ranks. Omeruro is a first choice centre back for Nigeria he kept our King quiet in the AFCON game agaisnt Ivory Coast. He is ready for that step up .

Left Back

At Left Back we have Cole and Bertrand with most recently Azpillicueta but I am going to put Azpillicueta out of this as he is our right back not our second choice left back that’s Bertrand. We have been linked with a array of talent at Left back but we do have Patrick Van Aanholt on loan at Vitesse who is performing very well, however I feel his time is coming to a close at Chelsea which is depressing as he is a good player. I only say this because he does seem to continuosly be out on loan with no hope of coming back. With the speculation of Cole possilbly retiring at the end of the season we do really need a good left back who can come in and fill the big void left by Cole. The main Left backs we have been linked with are Luke Shaw, Fabio Coentrao and Ricardo Rodriguez. Now Luke Shaw is 18 and he would cost around £20-25 million, he is quick, agile with great attacking prowess and can defend well, he does lose concentration sometimes but that will improve with age. He is part of Englands U21’s squad. Fabio Coentrao is 25 he would cost us around £20million, can attack really well and can support the left winger well he doesn’t like tracking back which is one problem that he would have to overcome if he came to the Premier League because of the fast counter attacking football some teams play. He is an integral part of the Portugal National Team set up even though he can’t get a game at Real Madrid. Ricardo Rodriguez is 21 and would cost around £17-20 million, He is another attacking full back but he can play on either wing as he can use both feet and can defend well. He has a monster free kick on him and scored a 35 yard free kick a couple of weeks back for VFL Wolfsburg. He is part of the Swiss National team and there are many teams looking at signing him.

If I had to choose who to go for it with Cole retiring at the end of the season it would have to be either keeping PVA or buying Luke Shaw. My reason behind this is that PVA has a lot of first team experience at Vitesse and has been a first team regular for them. If we do sell PVA then I would say buy Luke Shaw, he is one the best propects England have upcoming along with Barkley, Ward-Prowse and Hughes to name a few. He is Southampton’s first choice Left back and at the age of 18 that is quite a good showing of how good he is. Another thing with bringing Shaw in is the fact we can use home grown status to our advantage as not only has he already played football for three years in England already but we can still get the Home Grown status for Club with us as he would of been with us for 3 years before he turns 21 making him become one of the 4 players who have had to be trained at the club before 21 to follow the rules in the Champions League. I know he wouldn’t have experienc e but he would learn and you have to start off somewhere, I would rather have a young player who is inexperienced for playing in Europe but we would have a player for at least 12 years, also Ashley Cole want’s Luke Shaw to be his replacement if he did leave at the end of the season which shows how highly rated Shaw is. This would be a good investment in my eyes for the future. Also with the turmoil that’s coming out of Southampton we may be able to get Luke Shaw cheaper than first thought.

Centre Midfield

Now CM is a big problem for us as we need players who will be able to get up and down the pitch, who can defend well and pick a pass. At the moment we have an array of talent in this position for the first team: Frank Lampard, Ramires, John Obi Mikel, Marco Van Ginkel and Essien. David Luiz can also play here and I believe he is better playing here than defence and most recently an old Chelsea boy Nemaja Matic. Out on Loan we have a few noteable players, they are Romeu and McEachran. Romeu is at Valencia on Loan until the end of the season and McEachran is on Loan at Watford until the 2^nd January where it is up for debate as where he will be next. Players we have been linked with are many but the strongest and main ones are Fredy Guarin, Ivan Ratikic and Daniele De Rossi. Ratikic is the youngest at 25 but the Croatian would cost the most at £30million+ he is a playmaker and a very good one at that. Guarin is 27 and would cost us around £15million, the Colombian has been compared to an Essien of old times before the injuries started and on evidence I believe he is a great CM. De Rossi is 30 and would easily cost us around £14million and he is a holding/deep lying centre midfielder with power.

If I had too choose I would bring Matic in and sorry to say but sell Essien he has been a great servant though so we cannot fault him. Then wait for the youth player’s to get more experience and we have a strong Centre Midfield for the future, with others like Lewis Baker, Ruben Loftus-Cheek to name two of them. MVG may be loaned out next season due to his injury this season but we will have to see.

Striker

Now this has been a problem position for us since Drogba left, you cannot fault Torres for his commitment and everyone knowss that he is one of the hardest workers for the team. Eto’o is past his sell by date which is a shame I thought he could of come good and Demba Ba never found a footing at Chelsea which is a shame in my eyes. We have 3 other eye-catching players on our books as well, One being the Man Mountain/Tank Romelu Lukaku who has scored more goals than all our Striker’s put together, and he is fine form. He has gone a bit off the boil recently but I’m sure he will come roaring back. Now we have two quick, tricky youth players on our books by the name’s of Islam Feruz and Isaiah Brown. We have had Feruz since he rejected a Pro contract with Celtic in 2011 and we have signed him and he has been promising since. Brown we nabbed from West Brom after we had him sign a contract with us the compensation is unconfirmed but it is supposedly hitting the 7 figure mark. He can play in Midfield as well but like’s to play more as a Striker, not much has been seen of Brown but I have seen short clips and he seems a promising player and he’s English which will help in the long run if he is able to get into the first team. We have been linked with the World and his wife for the past 2 months. However I feel we are ok and we can wait until the Summer to assess and plan.

As you can probably tell from my last sentence I am happy to wait it out and bring in our youth then assess fully the Striking options. Next season I would preferably have Torres, Lukaku and either Feruz or Brown, with us selling Ba and letting Eto’o contract run out.

Please note these are my views and not what should, this is what I feel would be best for the team. How do you feel about the team? Where should we strengthen most?