AS THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY of his arrival at Stamford Bridge approaches, Roman Abramovich has been encountering frustration in his latest recruitment drive, but a flurry of new recruits is expected before Chelsea return to pre-season training a week tomorrow.
Moves have been made to sign Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips and, while their respective clubs have shown resistance to Abramovich’s threatened advances, a breakthrough is anticipated with one or both deals over the next seven days.
Luciano Moggi, the general manager of Juventus, revealed yesterday that he had rejected an inquiry from Chelsea about signing David Trezeguet, the France forward, but, while the search for a new striker remains problematic, the pursuit of Essien and Wright-Phillips is gathering pace. An announcement on Essien’s future is expected today, according to Fabien Piveteau, the Lyons midfield player’s agent, while there is a growing belief that Wright-Phillips will be a Chelsea player by the time José Mourinho’s squad report for pre-season training.
Publicly, Manchester City remain fiercely opposed to the prospect of selling WrightPhillips but their defiant stance on the England winger, illustrated by a robust club statement on Saturday afternoon, cannot mask a growing sense of foreboding. Contrary to reports over the weekend, there has been no direct contact between the clubs, let alone an agreement over a transfer fee, but, if and when a bid arrives, City will reluctantly tell Chelsea that a deal can be done, providing Abramovich is prepared to offer a sum of £20 million, a similar figure to that demanded by Lyons for Essien.
Such a figure would guarantee at least some funds for Stuart Pearce to strengthen what is one of the smallest squads in the Barclays Premiership, but the City manager remains opposed to the idea. “I expect to see Shaun for our pre-season programme unless someone tells me differently,” he said over the weekend. “Yes, he is in my plans for the new campaign. There have been no bids and no offers for Shaun. He is one year into a four-year contract and I want to keep my best players.” Even if Essien and Wright-Phillips move to Stamford Bridge, adding to the £8 million signing of Asier Del Horno from Athletic Bilbao last week, there is no guarantee that Mourinho will succeed in his efforts to find a top-class centre forward, which he has called a “key task”. Moggi claimed yesterday that “there has been a discussion” between Chelsea and Juventus about Trezeguet but said: “We told them our champions are not on sale.”
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Moggi also declared an interest in Patrick Vieira, the Arsenal captain, but admitted that such talk is little more than fanciful at present. “Vieira is an undisputable champion,” he said. “If Arsenal would put him on the market, we would sign him. But they don’t let him free. But should there be the favourable opportunity, we are there.”
Meanwhile, Mourinho has returned to one of his favourite themes by hinting at a conspiracy against Chelsea by the football authorities. After it emerged on Thursday that they face away assignments in the Premiership after each of their first five matches in the Champions League next season — in contrast to Arsenal, who play at Highbury on the corresponding weekends — the Chelsea manager said: “It’s always Chelsea who get the worst games, the worst fixtures to play, while Arsenal always have the best ones. I can’t say what I really think because if I tell you, I’m in trouble again. And I don’t want to be in trouble again.”