EskWeston

Newcastles problem is that they believe that they are a much bigger club than they actually are and can never accept that no-one is going to take them where they "believe" they should be unless someone spends an absolute fortune on them.... Which i don't think Mike Ashley as rich as he is will do.

Well thank god to get something of a confirmation on this transfer and this is exciting news. It is a big step because not only have we snapped up what appears to be a cracking little player but we have finally snapped up our first highly regarded South American young talent - thankfully in this instance we didn't have to deal with the work permit issue.

I agree a playmaker would complete our squad completely. Although looking at what the roumers are, it would seem our main target for that role has been Dos Santos - other than that the roumers have been pretty flimsy - Modric has been ruled out and Van Der Varrt hasn't had a mention for ages.

The striker situation is going to ber very interesting in the summer i think. With Anelka signed up and Di Santo comming in next week we have added to the strength in our attack which is crucial. Now there is big question marks over what is going to happen to all of Drogba, Shevchenko and Pizarro in the summer and it could be that they all end up leaving which means there will be a mega move for a massive striker in the summer.

:lol:

Yup it's certainly possible, although i would have though that would be rare considering his primary positon is defence and we have 3 players capable of playing the defensive midfield role already.

Chelsea Football Club today (Wednesday) completed the transfer of defender Branislav Ivanovic from Lokomotiv Moscow. He signed a three-and-a-half year contract. Ivanovic, 23, becomes Avram Grant's second January signing following the arrival of Nicolas Anelka. The Serbian international is a versatile addition to the squad. He can play right back, centre back or defensive midfield. Having begun his career in his native Serbia at local club Sremska Mitrovica, he soon moved to the Serbian capital Belgrade to play for OFK Beograd where he remained for three seasons, signing for Lokomotiv in the summer of 2006. He appeared for the Russian side in this season's Uefa Cup. A star of Serbia's Under 21s in both the 2006 and 2007 European Championships, Ivanovic was voted into last summer's Uefa Team of the Tournament, and has successfully graduated into a regular for the full national side. He made his Serbia and Montenegro debut in June 2006, and is now a regular in the Serbian line-up alongside Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic. He has nine caps and has scored once. 'It is the dream of every footballer to want to move on and improve yourself - and the ultimate is to play for such a big team as this,' Ivanovic said after completing his Chelsea move at Stamford Bridge today. Chelsea TV will be carrying the first interview with the club's new defender in Blues News at 6.30pm, repeated at 10pm. To subscribe to Chelsea TV on Sky Digital channel 421 call 08700 240 490. Existing Sky customers can subscribe through the Sky Products area on Sky Active via their Sky remote control. Source: Chelsea FC

Definately won't play this weekend as there is no "need" to play him like there was with Anelka, will give him more time to train with the team and maybe make an appearance against Wigan in the FA Cup

Why go back as far as the 50's? Hell even 10-20 years ago it would still apply....

It is very good business, and the fact he is still relatively young will not have made it easier to break into their national team. Although he was very successful i think at U21 level.... Will be good to see him in action and finally see what he is all about.

I wouldn't say that £8/9m for a quality defender is too much really! I know most of the papers today have rounded up to a nice even £10m but it was reported as £8.9m. When you think his reputation and young age i think that is a pretty good deal. Was looked at by pretty much all the top clubs aparently which is a good idea of how he is viewed.

With having Lampard back we should be able to put together a fantastic team out. The problem is with the CC Semi and the FA Cup game close behind how much resting players will we have to do?

Any excuse to write garbage for them!!! Ben Haim is the one most likely to depart for sure. He is certainly very highly rated and is still very very young which is great for our future, especially as Alex is also still fairly young. Our defence is looking very very solid indeed which is vital for a decent team.

It would seem that at the moment there are 2 more candidates for comming in January. Firstly is the apparent "done deal" of Franco Di Santo which is the more likely signing for next week and then we have Giovanni Dos Santos which is still up in the air until Barca agree a fee....

To be fair we don't really have a defender problem!!! This one is more of a long term signing than the sort of quick fix for the ACN/rest of season that we expected to see in January. And also the 2 sigings so far have been excellant as far as January signings go.

Couldn't agree more with all of that really Judging my his YouTube videos he would do well at right back getting forward. He does seem a great asset for us though which is the main thing.

He is a massive talent thats for sure at 18!! Although he is receiving a bit of stick because his form has trailed off, which is mainly down to the fact that he has had to burden the responsibility after the poor forms of both Ronaldinho and Messi. Would be a great great signing if we can pull it off, Barca are aparently wanting to cash in because of his contract situation so i guess we just wait and see, plenty of January still to go.

Well lets hope he is as good as he looks and as good as he has been hyped up. It will be hard for him to get games though, i would guess if he is going to get games soon it will be at Right back to give Belletti a bit of a break.

On CTV last night on the "paper talk" programme there is a journo on there (can't remember his name) who has been banging on for months that we are going to sign Giovanni Dos Santos in January and last night he explained the situation (how he understands it anyway)...... He said that we have been chasing him for a long while and in December over christmas he came over to England and had talks with Avram Grant. However he also had talks with Ramos and Fergie. Only Chelsea and Spurs have officially made bids ours was £10m and Spurs was £8m. Ramos was aparently bigging up the fact that he would play every week for them where he wouldn't for us ect.... Dos Santos went back to Barca and asked the advice of Rijkaard, and aparently he told him to join Chelsea. He has also been talking to Eidur about us and Eidur obviously has been bigging us up and selling us well, but Eidur has reservations about Dos Santos's form at the moment. Finally the main problem now is to get Barca to agree a fee, Dos Santos does not have a pro contract so we could go through tribunal but we would miss the January deadline so we are basically hoping for Barca to accept the £10m we have offered.

Papers today saying he will turn down Sunderland and Pompey and Everton are keeping an eye on the situation!

If Ivanovic is a replacement for Ben Haim then we have about as strong a centre back position as you possibly hope for in Terry, Carvalho, Alex and Ivanovic. The fact that he can play across the back 4 makes him that little bit more valuable, will be interesting to see how he is deployed in the team.

Franco Di Santo next to arrive

Chelsea Football Club can confirm it has agreed terms with Lokomotiv Moscow for the transfer of Branislav Ivanovic. A work permit application has also been successful for the player. The transfer is now subject to the agreement of personal terms and passing of the medical. Source: Chelsea FC

Well we have been linked this January with Miguel, Maicon and Alves now....

I think that is just a roumer at the moment and not sure how much substance there is to that story at the moment, although it would be a cracking signing.