Ganso green-light.
Santos president Luis Alvaro Ribeiro has revealed that he will not stop midfielder Ganso leaving the club and Chelsea are lining up a bid, Lancenet reports.
The Blues are looking for a midfielder to provide some creativity to their side if they cannot agree a deal for Luka Modric and the 21-year-old Ganso fits the bill for new manager Andre Villas-Boas. Chelsea face competition from a number of clubs across Europe including last season’s Premier League champions Manchester United and Italian giants AC Milan. Ribeiro spoke last week about Ganso’s availability and will not stand in the Brazilian’s way.
The Santos president said: ‘He has already told me he wants to stay at Santos, to play in the Club World Cup at the end of the year. But if he wants to leave Santos, we will not have any objections to that. We have to respect the player’s wish. He has his dreams, his ambitions’.
Ganso’s Santos teammate Neymar could also follow him out of the club, but could be open to a move in January. Chelsea are still interested in Neymar and could look into the possibility of bringing both Santos players to Stamford Bridge.
Scroll down for rest of article
Lukaku living a dream.
Chelsea new boy Romelu Lukaku believes that he is living the dream by making his move to Stamford Bridge, The Sun reports.
Lukaku left Belgian side Anderlecht to sign for the Blues and ended a lengthy pursuit from Chelsea to sign the 18 year old forward. Lukaku has made no secret of being a Chelsea fan and becomes Andre Villas-Boas’ third signing after the purchases of Barcelona midfielder Oriol Romeu and Genk goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Lukaku faces competition to break into the Chelsea side behind Chelsea’s main four strikers of Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Nicolas Anelka and the impressive Daniel Sturridge. The Belgian forward is prepared to wait his turn and is just excited about joining such a magnificent club.
On his official Twitter site, Lukaku spoke about his favourite things with Chelsea. He said: ‘The fans, the players, it’s just my dream team. I am entering a team full of experienced guys and winners. And I’m very happy about that’.
Crouch pleads with Modric.
Tottenham forward Peter Crouch has pleaded with reported Chelsea target Luka Modric to stay at White Hart Lane, the Daily Mail reports.
The Croatian midfielder has made it clear he wants a move to Stamford Bridge and Chelsea are keen on bringing him to the Blues after having two bids of £22m and £27m turned down by Spurs. Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has emphasised that he does not want to lose the 25-year-old, but knows that a bid in excess of £30m may be too good to reject.
Modric was cheered when he came on as a 24th minute substitute in Spurs 2-1 win over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday and it is evident that the Spurs fans are pleading with him to stay. New Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas is desperate to bring in a new creative midfielder and Modric is the man for the Blues, but Crouch has begged his teammate to stay.
The England striker said: ‘He knows that the fans here love him and hopefully, he can stay as long as he can. We all want him to stay. He’s going off for international duty and we were saying, ‘make sure we see you on Thursday’. He is a top player. We love him at the club. We love him. He is a great lad to have about’.
Can Chelsea win the Premier League next season? OLBG.com lists them at 15/4 to take home the title. Click the highlighted link for the latest odds and pick up a free bet while you’re at it!
Don’t forget to check out the Chelsea page, updated daily here at A Different League for the latest in-depth analysis.
