Chelsea
In
Andre Schurrle (Bayer Leverkusen) Undisclosed
Mario van Ginkel (Vitesse Arnhem) Undisclosed
Mark Schwarzer (Fulham) Free
Out
Yossi Benayoun Released
Florent Malouda (Trabzonspor) Free
Paulo Ferreira Released
Ross Turnbull (Doncaster Rovers) Free
Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid) Loan
Marko Marin (Sevilla) Loan
Oriol Romeu (Valencia) Loan
Positives: The Jose Mourinho factor cannot be underestimated as he returns to Chelsea to try and reignite the club to their first premiership in quite some time and make them competitive in Europe as well. As ridiculous as the last comment sounds as they did win the Europa League last season they did get knocked out of the champions league group stage and that is not good enough for the Chelsea Hierarchy. Rafa Benitez as unpopular as the choice was did stabilise the club and guided the squad through the packed fixture list they had and got them the Europa League and Champions League qualification and gives the special one a platform to build on this season. It seems sins from the past are forgiven from Roman Abromivich and Chelsea with the squad that they have are contenders for both the league and Champions League this season.
Negatives: If Chelsea are to succeed they badly need a striker who can bang in 20 goals a season for them and spearhead Mourinho's preferred 4-3-3 formation. If it is Wayne Rooney then that would be massive for the club and have to be rated as favourites if he does arrive but if they don't get him they do still need to find an answer with Demba Ba and Fernando Torres not doing enough last season to warrant that position so it may fall to Roman Lukaku to fill the Drogba position so to speak and recreate the form he did last season in his loan spell with West Brom. It will be a tough ask for him if they don't get someone in the transfer window to help him out but it will be interesting to see how he does this season.
Has Mourinho still got it? Will he carry the scars that inflicted his Real Madrid reign. Certainly for the first time in his managerial reign it could be considered a failure considering what the expectations were like at Madrid. Chelsea fans will give him an easier ride considering what he did for them in the past but I wonder if that will change if Chelsea don't get off to the start they desire.
Predicted position:3rd without Rooney, 1st with him.
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