EskWeston

Chelsea have shown that they're not only about signing big money players for the here-and-now by winning the race for the signature of youngster Marko Mitrovic. The 16-year-old Swede reportedly joins the Stamford Bridge outfit on a £300,000 deal from Malmo having impressed Chelsea during a summer trial. The young striker has already been capped by Sweden at U15 level, and - being likened by the Swedish media to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Dider Drogba - is hotly tipped to have a bright future.Source: Goal.com

Chelsea are set to bid for Real Madrid's Dutch international winger Royston Drenthe in the January transfer window in a deal that could see the dissatisfied Florent Malouda move in the opposite direction.Drenthe, a quick, left-sided player who is often employed as a wing-back, only joined Madrid in the summer when he left Feyenoord for £11 million but has failed to make the expected impact at the club.The 20-year-old has seen his playing time restricted and a series of clashes with manager Bernd Schuster means his time at the Bernabeu is running out.Drenthe was left out of Madrid's Champions League squad to play Werder Bremen last week and the German was reportedly furious when pictures appeared in the press of Drenthe out in a nightclub that same evening. The pair had previously clashed over the youngster listening to music whilst sat on the bench during a league match.Chelsea's Dutch coach Henk Ten Cate is a known admirer of the player and has urged manager Avram Grant to pursue his signature.Real, who would be happy to offload the Dutch player, are likely to propose a swap deal that sees the unhappy Malouda head to the Bernabeu.Chelsea beat the Spanish club to the Frenchman's signature in the summer but recent comments which surfaced from an interview Malouda did with a French magazine suggest the player is dissatisfied with both the club and his new home.Railing against everything from training methods to the London transport system, Malouda cuts a downbeat figure and the deal would appear to suit all parties involved.Chelsea paid £16 million for Malouda and so may seek a cash plus player deal from the Spanish champions but that is unlikely to hold up the deal for long.Source: Telegraph

Reports in Spain are claiming that Chelsea already have an agreement in place with Barcelona ace Ronaldinho. It is claimed by leading Spanish daily Marca that The Blues have finalised a deal with the 27-year-old - whose time in Catalunya looks to be drawing to a close. Ronaldinho has long been linked with a switch to Chelsea, with owner Roman Abramovich thought to be a huge fan of the Brazilian. The one-time Manchester United target has been far from at his best this term and has even been dropped to the bench by coach Frank Rijkaard. Previously a cheeky bid from Middlesbrough was the only offer thought to have been lodged, but Chelsea now look on course to land Ronaldinho. Italian giants Milan, who also have a long-standing interest, could mount a late challenge. The reports state that Ronaldinho will be paid 10million euros (£7.1million) a-year at Stamford Bridge, although the two clubs have not yet agreed a deal. It is believed Chelsea want to take Ronaldinho in January and the player is also keen, but it remains to be seen whether Barcelona could be persuaded to sell him before the summer. Source: Sky Sports

Yup would agree with that. Besides with Essiens shooting it is pointless to have him that high up the pitch anyway

Would have been fantastic if it was free......................

Absolutely, you can understand the clubs point of view on this....it isn't generally a good idea to let your loan players play against you.

When he signed for us it was said at the time that he can be the new Gullit for us, that is certianly being proved true. His calmness on the ball, his ability to hold people off and his passing range is top class.

It would be good experience for him, but the bottom line is the most important thing is for us to win the game, and Mancienne not playing will weaken their team....

Lol, too true. Other than a couple of crackers which were obviously flukes

Well you could see him making the comments. The English game is alwasys called over aggressive, and it isn't exactly a secret that our training sessions are usually full blooded affairs. Also the diet thing was something brought in by Jose i believe as previously they had very strict diets and Jose wanted to give the responsibility to the players as they are grown men - Malouda possibly has little self control As always there are numerous negative stories about us, we have been for years now a source for selling papers, anything negative, even slightly is written about and believed as fact when chances are it is nothing of the sort.

Chelsea winger Florent Malouda has revealed his culture shock since moving to Stamford Bridge. Malouda, who joined Chelsea from Lyon in a £13million move this summer, has been out of action for a month with a knee injury and the 27-year-old has also slammed the Blues' training regime. The Frenchman has described Chelsea's full-blooded training sessions as 'terrifying' and he admits he is surprised by the style of the English game. "Training sessions here are terrifying," said Malouda. "They are just like matches, and you go flat out. "During the actual games it is as though everybody's brains are switched off. "People play by instinct, spontaneously, in the way they did when they first discovered football." Malouda has also slammed the eating habits at Chelsea and he believes he would not be in the physical shape that he is had he moved to Stamford Bridge earlier in his career. "The people at Chelsea don't control what the players eat. You can help yourself to whatever you like, drink Coke or anything," Malouda added. "It is a good job I have come over here at the age of 27 and so haven't been following the same diet as the rest of the club's players."Source: Sky Sports

Well it was always going to happen, hardly ever these days are loan players allowed to play against their parent clubs, which is understandable.

It does also go to show that you can be a youngster and get regular first team football at Chelsea. Mikel is an special talent and there won't be many come through like him but it can be done.Last season we watched Mikel grow from a raw talent into a fantastic prospect. This season we are watching that prospect grow into one of the best midfielders around, in a year or 2 there will be none better than him.

Lol, you can't just go around buying all the players who have a decent game against us! Bottom line is neither of those players would be good enough for us...

Would be the same for him with us unless we let someone go...

Indeed, thats because he isn't THAT good, and why this story was rubbish from the start...

The only way it will happen is if we let go a left back, which i can't see us doing, there is simply no room for him here.

Can't see it happening for a start. BUT if there is a grain of truth in it then there is no way we should do it. Maybe sell him, but NOT to united, Sheva is class and it would be typical for him to go there and recover his form.....

With a weeks rest before this game we should be in good form and well prepared and i fully expet us to beat them. Would love to absolutely smash them because i can't stand that w**ker Keane....

Lol, great draw for us and should be a cracking game. Sinclair and Sahar will be back from loan by then and i would seriously doubt we would let them play Mancienne against us. Will be interesting thats for sure.

Great to see someone in the press finally give Mikel some credit, every single other young player gets untold praise on them when they play well because they are young. And Mikel deserves the same.Mikel is a class class player, he is getting better all the time. I hope that the holding role is not going to be a permanant role for him because as we say on Saturday he can offer so much to us going forward and can be a fantastic creative influence.It is going to be fantastic watching this young man grow into a truly world class player.

Lack of disipline??? I don't think so anyway.The red cards we have taken have been nothing short of shocking, none of them warranted a red.And as far as the West Ham game goes, FB is right, if the ref had sorted out the West Ham players at the start it would never have got that bad. Mikel was targeted constantly, you could see him getting wound up because the ref took no action, he flew in once and was still targeted after that, but he kept his cool and was fantastic, so full credit to him.There is no lack of disipline as far as i can see.

Glad they are doing something, it is awful the way we are targeted, watching the Arsenal game at the weekend they surrounded the ref at every chance, nothing will come of it. It is blatantly wrong and i am gald the club are doing something.

He deserves more than this award, he is by far the best striker in the world. But because he is not a show pony he won't win the biggies...But as far as we are concerned he is the best.

What a brilliant article.........Another supberbly written piece based on snippets from a Chelsea "Source".... Ahh the fabeled Chelsea source a character of such solid foundation, how we have loved reading his cracking information in the past and how we love it still.Could maybe have had a little bit more credability if the story got it's facts right as well. Saying that Mick McGivern is the scout and that Emanalo takes the place of Rui!!! Shocking reporting, not to mention doing Villas Boas a huge dis-service by calling him "football manager obsessed" as if he got all his info from there....Awful article