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Well after 3 months of rumours, speculation and drama the transfer window slammed shut at six o’clock UK time. In the window Chelsea lost some former heroes and gained some young talent and a proven Premiership performer.

Here is how the transfer window panned out

Players In:

Yossi Benayoun – £5m* (Midfield):

The first Chelsea transfer of the season, he is an experienced Premier League performer having featured for both West Ham and Liverpool. An impact substitute in his final months at Anfield, it is expected that he will provide back up for Florent Malouda, Frank Lampard or Michael Essien offering a different tactical dimension to Carlo Ancelotti’s options.

Ramires (Midfield)

After weeks of speculation Chelsea finally secured the signature of the talented midfielder Ramires who was one of 3 players that eChelseaFC identified at the start of the season as good potential signings.

Also - Tomas Kalas – Defender -Sigma Olumouc

Players Out

Joe Cole – Released/Liverpool

After contract negotiations broke down, the club announced that Joe Cole was being released that led to numerous claims and counter claims some of which bordered on the ridiculous. Whatever happened Chelsea lost a very talented footballer and only time will tell if it was the right decision.

Michael Ballack – Released/Bayer Leverkusen

His time at the club never delivered on the expectations when he arrived from Bayern Munich, however he offered alot to the club and had a few fantastic periods of form at the club.

Many expected he would get a contract extension, but obviously Carlo Ancelotti and the club felt that they could do without the German international with eyes probably already on the signing of Ramires.

Juliano Belletti – Free/Fluminese

The cult hero of the last few years, he had reached the end of his contract and Chelsea career, with both parties sharing a mutual understanding that it was time for Juliano to find a new club.

Deco – Free/Fluminese

Despite arriving on a crest of a wave, he seemed to only be able to perform during the summer or spring months, becoming anonymus with the first sign of summer.

Played his part in our title last year and this should not be easily forgotten.

Ricardo Carvalho – £6.7m Real Madrid

Probably the most technically gifted defender at the club for long periods of his stay, age was starting to catch up with the Portuguese international and Chelsea got a good price for a 32 year old.

Thank you for your service and contribution to 3 Championship medals Riccy.

Franco Di Santo – £2.5m – Wigan

After signing he was lauded as a future Chelsea star, however this never translated into results struggling in his performances both at the club on loan. £2.5m represents great value for Chelsea based on his current potential.

ALSO

Scott Sinclair, Liam Bridcutt (Brighton and Hove Albion), Sam Hutchinson (retired due to injury)

Out On Loan

Nemanja Matic (Vitesse), Rhys Taylor (Crewe), Michael Mancienne (Wolves), Metej Delac (Vitesse), Ryan Bertrand (Nottingham Forest),  Ben Gordon (Kilmarnock), Tomas Kalas (Sigma Olumouc), Slobodan Rajkovic (Vitesse), Jack Cork (Burnley), Danny Phillishirk (Oxford United)

The Nearly Men: Neymar, Begovic, Demechelis, Ramos and countless others

Position: Central Midfield

Former Club: Benfica

Nationality: Brazilian

Age: 23

Ramires has been confirmed as a Chelsea player after signing a 4 year deal with the club after completing a medical according Chelsea TV

The young Brazilian midfielder impressed in Benfica’s title winning side in Portugal last season. Having moved to Lisbon from Cruzeiro last summer, the ‘Blue Kenyan’ (as he was nicknamed in his homeland) has become hot property on the European transfer market.

Chelsea’s midfield has lost Michael Ballack this summer and with Michael Essien picking up more and more injuries; it might be time to invest in a midfield which has carried itself without major investment for practically five seasons.

Moreover, Frank Lampard is now the wrong side of 30, meaning that he will surely begin to miss more games as the strain of Premier League, Champions League and International fixtures keep racking up on his body. Not to mention the fact that Joe Cole has swapped Chelsea blue for Liverpool red.

Ramires has a knack of scoring goals with runs from deep, as well as an eye for a killer pass. The fact that he is just 23 means that the future of the midfield at Stamford Bridge could be secured for several years, as he will join the relatively youthful pairing of John Obi Mikel and Essien as well as the highly rated youngster Nemanja Matic.

Profile by Richard French

More to follow

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Carvalho in his last game in a Chelsea shirt against Frankfurt

It seems now inevitable that the curtain is about to fall on Ricardo Carvalho’s illustrious six year career at Chelsea as the club and Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid have agreed a £6.7m fee for the 32 year old defender.

Arriving shortly after his new employer at Stamford Bridge from Porto he quickly ousted William Gallas as the preferred partner to John Terry in the centre of defence and earned a reputation as a cultured and talented defender. Always a danger from set pieces he scored a suprisingly low 11 times for Chelsea but doubtlessy created many more by the nuisance he caused in opposition penalty area.

It is with little doubt that Chelsea and in particular John Terry can attribute a great amount of their collective success to the defensive capabilities of Ricardo Carvalho and a tribute to his talent that he has became such a vital part of an incredibly successful Chelsea team.

He has earnt the admiration of the Chelsea faithful and whilst it has seemed inevitable for a long time now that he would at sometime rejoin Jose Mourinho, he will be sorely missed.

The only upside of this departure is that at 32 the defender is entering the twilight of his career and £6.7m represents excellent value to Chelsea providing Alex and Ivanovic can step up sufficiently to fill the Portugeuse internationals shoes.

Finally I would like to propose a toast to Ricardo Carvalho, a true Chelsea legend.

Ricardo Carvalho Stats

Appearances: 210

Goals: 11

Watch the last one with the sound off!

It seems that Carlo Ancelotti and Roman Abramovich have been reading eChelseaFC, as in the coming days it seems likely that having agreed a fee, Chelsea will sign Brazilian midfielder Ramires.

Ramires has been one of the signings that eChelseaFC and Richard French have been advocating since the transfer window opened.

 Although a Brazillian international with high profile, this signing is welcome relief from the rumours that we were going to fritter away money on over valued superstars such as Fernando Torres or Kaka.

£18m seems like a very good price for a Brazillian international, with both strength and technical skill.

 In the coming days we will be profiling the player, once the picture on his signing becomes clearer, we don’t want to do a Robinho and start printing shirts with his name on just yet you see.

The Players That Chelsea Should be Signing

 The Complications of the Ramires Signing

 Ramires Video

Lets Hope Ramires is not Another Robinho

Most of us know the agony of thinking a star player is going to join our club, only to wake up and find out that he has joined another club. The Robinho transfer saga was one that ended in sorrow for all Chelsea fans, even if in the end it looks like we were saved a great deal of money and hassle.

Today when a player like Ramires is ‘claimed’ to be on the verge of joining the club, it would be better to be more cautious.

Chelsea-bound Ramires passes to his Brazilian team mate Robinho

With the issue of 3rd parties owning Ramires, some claim that it won’t be much of a problem.

However, according to Premier League rules the transfer could be in jeopardy and we as fans musn’t get overconfident till we see the player holding a Chelsea Shirt at a Stamford Bridge press conference.

No doubt that such a transfer is leaning towards the Bridge, but we cannot be sure. Ever since the Robinho Kit Sale debacle its hard to say whether even the official site could be 110% right that the transfer will happen.

Fans can only hope that the club will sign the players that are needed to take the club forward. However, today there is the uncertainty of a last minute bid, a player changing his mind, politics and cash.

Robinho also chose City over Chelsea but his Brazilian counterpart, Ramires, has chosen Chelsea. Let’s hope that this time we can sign the player who truly wishes to be at the club.

Chelsea fans will have seen the name Kia Joorabchian is involved with the Ramires transfer and groaned, and understandably so. West Ham United fans will assure you that getting involved with the Iranian is not an ideal move.

The chase of Ramires may seem painful, but hopefully it will be smiles all round by the start of the season

The club was fined £5.5 million for breaching FA transfer rules when they fielded Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano (both then owned by Joorabchian’s Media Sports Investments) in the 2006-2007 campaign.

If West Ham was owned by a Russian billionaire who had had dealings with the Joorabchian team before, there would have been no such problems. Luckily for Chelsea, that is exactly the scenario here.

The rules in place in the Premier League mean that Chelsea must pay the whole transfer fee for Ramires to his club, Benfica. This is hindered only by virtue of the fact that he is owned 50% by Joorabchian and a further 30% by football agent Pini Zahavi. Any potential deal which goes through would have to be done by Chelsea and Benfica first, and then Benfica and other parties second.

For other clubs this may be a problem, with complicated contracts and two football agents involved. However, when Roman Abramovich took over the Blues in 2003, the deal was conducted by a super agent, none other than Pini Zahavi.

This will mean that the Russian’s people will no doubt have common ground with Zahavi and Joorabchian, which should mean that the transfer goes ahead as planned.

Ramires is said to be joining Chelsea for £20 million, with an eventual 80% of that fee going to the third and fourth parties. Benfica will see just £4 million for the Brazilian.

Joorabchian is set to more than triple the money he paid for the 23 year old back in April. Having paid just £3 million four months ago, he will land £10 million when Chelsea unveil their new signing next week.

Don’t believe the hype which will gather around this story, Ramires will be lining up next to Lampard and co in a few weeks time. Chelsea are too cautious after the tapping up incident with Ashley Cole and the Gael Kakuta affair to let this become another West Ham story.

It will be refreshing when web pages and newspaper columns once again feature reports of what happens on the pitch, this legal stuff gets very boring.

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Is Ramires on the way to the Bridge? If so who will follow him?

Every day I get asked by Chelsea fans, what is the latest transfer news? In recent days I am afraid that there has been little to tell them beyond shameless paper talk.

The only notable rumour is the strong rumblings that the signing of Ramires is a done deal, whilst I have no firm evidence to confirm this the rumours are strong and this will be a great signing for Chelsea.

So far Chelsea have been linked with over 40 players, the strongest rumours obviously centre on the superstars of the world such as Fernando Torres, Kaka, Aguero to bolster an ageing team.

However with 36 days left of this summer’s transfer window, I fear that many fans will be disappointed, as little appears to be on the horizon.

Liverpool appear to be demanding too much for injury prone Fernando Torres and little seems to be materialising for anyone apart from Ramires.

The coming weeks however do give hope to those hungry for new signings, most of the players that fans hope Chelsea will be targeting are only just returning to training after the World Cup, so it is likely that a quiet transfer window for most clubs will start to heat up.

Hopefully when this happens eChelseaFC will be here to give you the latest reaction to the transfer activity around the Bridge.

Amid rumours that the deal for a player tipped up by Richard French earlier this week is on the verge of joining the club,  here is a video of the Brazilian in action.

Should Chelsea Take Such Huge Risk ??

 Earlier in the week Richard French highlighted Neymar as one of the more viable transfer options for Chelsea.

This is supplemented by the fact that during the past week reports in the media have been circulating that Chelsea are in the hunt for the Brazilian wonder kid.

If Chelsea want to sign him, it is likely he is special, f he is barely old enough to shave and Brazilian then he must be a really really interesting prospect.

It is reported that Chelsea made a bid for the 18 year old star from Santos, apparently this was turned down but the player’s agent has then clarified that that if Neymar wants to join Chelsea then he will do anything to make it happen.

This suggests that with persistence Chelsea have a fantastic chance at signing the youngster, However, should Chelsea shell out such multi millions to bring teenager who hasn’t even won a international cap?

 No doubt that spending such huge amount on teenager is a gamble but there are also positives. As he is still in his early stages of his career and yet to mature,, he will get plenty of time to adjust himself with the English game and the weather. 

 Also, we all know that manager and higher management are looking to build the team for the future rather than the present, as our star players move towards their twilight years in football.

Ancelotti brought Kaka and Pato to AC Milan and they have turned them into real world class players.

Therefore I trust Carlo Ancelotti if it is his wish to sign Neymar then we must trust he can turn this raw talent into a masterpiece., 

Neymar is really one of the exceptional talents of the game today, he has speed, skills, vision, can play with both feet and can play in number of formations as well as all the other requirements to become a star player, including natural Brazilian flair.  

This is the style that Roman Abramovich and Carlo Ancelotti must be seeking, given a chance Neymar could become a superstar and more than repay the clubs investment, becoming a prized asset.  

Yet  every coin has two sides, if we sign him and he comes to England then he will be considered as a celebrity even before he plays a single game, we all know what media is capable of doing.

The burden of expectations might cost him in the recent years few Brazilian players have come to Europe to play in England. There was of course Robinho but we all know what happened to him,

I believer there are many more positives and negatives regarding this transfer but I cannot spend all my days trying to convince you.

In short if Chelsea can sign him for not more than 25 million and give him enough time to adjust without putting any burden, then CHELSEA MUST SIGN HIM…… but only time will decide…….

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