No sign yet, then, that we have learnt the lesson of previous years big spendering in the transfer market. Clearly, it needs spelling out again for those with learning difficulties who aren’t in the Britain’s Got Talent competition. G-E-T IT D-O-N-E Q-U-I-C-K-L-Y. Simples, as any meerkat will tell you.

Anyone with an ounce of realism in their soul knows that the Media need no second bidding to push us into their usual maze of ever decreasing chance of transfer success, through to ever increasing frustration for Roman, and on and on until the club eventually reaches an endgame ‘snub’ of humiliating and huge proportion. The other unenviable alternative is that we wander around in this confused state for what seems like an age, until finally finding our way out with someone in tow who was either a) our third choice b] only signing for the money or c) ludicrously overpriced. As each of our supposed transfer targets slips through our fingers and into the snubbery a replacement comes along [Ribery being the current flavour of the week] to fill the void and provide a few more days of excruciating claptrap both on screen and in print.

Of course, none of this treatment ever seems to be dished out to our rivals, a classic case being Gareth Barry’s decision to join Citeh, which was the clearest case of an Anfield snub you could ever wish to see, and which [in The Times] came within a whisker of being referred to as such. Except that, when the first letter ‘s’ found the page, the rest of the word got stuck in the reporter’s conscience and he could only bring himself to type on a ‘hunned’, thereby slightly salving any hurt being felt by the precious Scousers. It would appear that, whilst Chelsea can have any amount of snooks cocked at them, the more sensitive souls from up North need to be pandered to.

Confirmation of this can also be found at ManU where the absentee owners aren’t really showing a lack of interest by not being around - they’re merely letting Siralex get on with things. In contrast, we are always led to believe, Roman fluctuates between interference, to the point of completely running the show, one month and being totally disinterested, to the point of wanting to sell it, the next. This may well be due to the mighty dollar paying for pipers, as opposed to the rich man’s rouble, but only a few miles down the road the Abu Dhabi boys also get away cheap shot free with their purchases being both massive statements of intent and a flexing of muscle, compared to our outlandish splashing of cash that borders on the obscene.

And even when our paths cross, such as when Daniel Sturridge refuses an offer of a new contract at the club that can, if they really want to, pay it from the loose change burning a hole in their owner’s pocket, it is Chelsea who come out of the coverage worse, just for having the temerity to offer him an improved salary together with the prospect of playing more than five times in a season. Okay, the lad may not make many more appearances than that for us in a season, but notice that the Media brush past that argument in headlong support of Hughsie in his forthcoming spending spree on overseas skills and without a moments thought for the nurturing of young British talent. Well, you would, wouldn’t you, especially when Chelsea are involved and, you never know, another of those snubbing opportunities might still arise if there’s a delay in tying up any deal and Martin O’Neill decides to spend some of his Barry money on the rebound.

So, how much more of this continual, mindless and misleading transfer speculation must Chelsea fans suffer before those in control of the purse strings realise the simple truth that it can all be avoided by expediency. Kenyon tried the waiting game with Robinho and look where it got him - nowhere and not very fast. Now we seem to have been dancing to Milan’s tune over Kaka and Pato, the former‘s situation being dragged out until Monday, for some unaccountable reason, with the latter waiting for it to happen, for an equally unaccountable reason. Still nothing concrete on Sturridge and Zhirkov, both being overshadowed by talk of Pirlo, which is no doubt a prelude to the inevitable improved contract followed by, yes you’ve guessed it...

‘Summer snubbing, had me a blast. Summer snubbing happened so fast.’

Well, I suppose at least we should be glad that something did.

Edited June 4, 200917 yr by Dorset

brilliant as usual dorset, and very prophetic as it turns out. so far weve been "snubbed" by dzako, kaka, seedorf, pirlo, Lavezzi and this is the best one i remember, we even got snubbed by ancelotti apparently. how did that one end again? the truth is chelsea are one of the more shrewd clubs when it comes to transfer gossip. our club may make plenty of other balls ups but they do keep their cards close to their chests when transfers are involved. i seem to remember hear bruce buck once saying it was club policy not to talk about transfers until there was an official bid in. which i suppose is why some numptys in the media just make things up, better than actually having to work at finding real transfer possibilitys i suppose.

Oh for the days of Colin Hutchinson - nobody had any idea about our potential signings until they were unveiled at the press conference, deal done.

Oh for the days of Colin Hutchinson - nobody had any idea about our potential signings until they were unveiled at the press conference, deal done.

He was the best at transfer deals.. imagine the press if the equivalant of Guillit, Vialli, Zola, Desailly coming to the Bridge today !

Personally I reckon that we show interest in a lot of players.... it must work the same way as job interviews, players look at several clubs and clubs look at several players, and a decision is made on the right fit and it depends on a massive amount of variables. I hate the press linking us to all and sundry but they are probably right to a certain extent in a lot of cases, even if that "approach" is a casual conversation.

All this Chelsea are going to sign one big player thing is familar, remember last year, Robinho was going to come, but it didnt happen and it was too late to sign someone else. Hopefully the club have learnt.

All this Chelsea are going to sign one big player thing is familar, remember last year, Robinho was going to come, but it didnt happen and it was too late to sign someone else. Hopefully the club have learnt.

to be honest, chelsea dont generally play out their transfers in public. the media come up with all kinds of ridiculous speculation, but normally the club refuse to comment, or in the case of kaka refute it all and basically say its utter bollocks. its one thing the club do really well in my opinion.

Oh for the days of Colin Hutchinson - nobody had any idea about our potential signings until they were unveiled at the press conference, deal done.

If there was one reason I didn't want Ancellotti to be our next manager then this was it. I harboured vague hopes that the new appointment would be done in the old Chelsea way, with the press, clueless as usual, doing their best to disown the recent "worst kept secret in football" headlines in the face of a "deal done, who would have guessed it" type announcement on Monday morning.

And yes I do blame Kenyon for the way we do thing now.

Edited June 4, 200917 yr by Lofty

Great read, Dorset. I am of the firm belief that 75% of transfer rumors (if not more) arise merely because they are plausible. For example, the rumor that we are interested in Villa. Valencia almost have to sell him and who can really pay the fee he wants. It's a short list. Man City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and us. That's about it. And I would guess the City would be easily the least attractive of those teams. So it's a three team list. In all probability, we haven't made an approach for Villa yet but it's inevitable that he will be linked with us. It's plausible and the rags are all desperate to trumpet "you heard it here first". We will invariably be mentioned as a potential landing spot for every big ticket player who is even slightly likely to change squads. 5% of the rumors are based on actual reality. The other 20% are utter trash that are neither factual nor plausible. That's where you get stories like the one where we want to buy a RB (when we spent big on one last summer and have a half-dozen guys who can play the position well) or where we will send Essien to Milan for Pirlo.

In a way, transfer season must be more fun for the small clubs. It isn't every day that Fulham, for example, is being named as pursuing a specific player, so there's a greater chance that there is substance to each individual rumor as opposed to "see what sticks" approach of the papers to our summer dealings.

Great post, it's been an annoying start to the transfer season so far for us, but I agree that we should exercise expediency in our deals. If we want Zhirkov, that deal should've been done on Day 1.

Great post, Dorset. I'm really tired of this as well. People may say, "ignore them". Well, heck, if you were excited at the prospect of a new manager and what he may do to the team to improve it, it is darned right impossible to ignore what goes on in the papers.

But forgetting the bias for a little bit, some of the rumors do sound very far fetched. For example, Kaka would only ever go to Real, if he ever left Milan. I really believe that. I sincerely doubt he'd come to the EPL. It wouldn't suit his game. He's already very, very settled at Milan and only a move to his dream destination would appeal. So that rumor never really did get me too excited. The papers drumming our interest up and then reporting we'd been snubbed is irritating, however.

The Villa rumors are similar. David Villa strikes me as someone who wants to remain in Spain, and he has options. I am certain Madrid or even Barca would be interested if they felt Valencia would sell. As such, he doesn't need to consider moving abroad. So, I doubt we would be one of his first choices. As a matter of fact, I don't think we'd be one of his first maybe five choices.

Who wouldn't be interested in the likes of Kaka and Villa. The thing is, players have their preferred destinations and we as a club would/should know this.

The rumor I'm interested in is the Ribery one. Again, it looks like our supposed interest is going to go nowhere as Bayern say they will not sell him because van Gaal wants to work with him. I think firstly that the rumors of our interest are plausible because [a] he plays in a position that we need strengthening, and he's at a club where a move to Chelsea would be considered a step up. I also believe Bayern could use the money to strengthen several other areas. It leads me to believe they are just trying to drive up his transfer fee. This is a situation where, as you say, it would be better to move and complete the transfer quickly. Delaying only serves to help Bayern. I would not be shocked to learn Madrid wanting to turn to him if they lose out on Ronaldo.

Snubbed, snubbed and snubbed again!

Cheers,

Butch

What i think Chelsea should do is say they are going to put bids in for 40 of the top players from PL and Europe, the press wouldn't know how to contain themselves,we could sit back and laugh uncontrollably whilst the media go into meltdown,and we would probably get our target buys as well, amongst the ensuing confusion :P

Great post, it's been an annoying start to the transfer season so far for us, but I agree that we should exercise expediency in our deals. If we want Zhirkov, that deal should've been done on Day 1.

Might be worth noting the transfer window hasn't actually opened yet.

Might be worth noting the transfer window hasn't actually opened yet.

Hasn't Barry gone to City already?

Or is that one just pending?

I think this whole 'we did things more quietly and better under Hutchinson' is a bit of a flawed argument as it isn't really a fair comparison. When Hutch was doing the deals we were not big news and we did not have big money to splash around. Now our transfer activity is massive news irrespective of whether there is any truth in it or now. I doubt anyone, including Hutch, could keep our transfer business quiet in the current day - everyone involved in deals is gagging to make it public - the agent, the player and the selling club.

it's also wrong...i remember our moves for vialli, gullit etc being in the papers before they were confirmed by the club...with gullit it was between him and gazza...we made the right choice i think!

I thought the transfer window for England opened on midnight after the last game of the season or something?

It's July 1st for other places, Like Italy, I guess.

I thought the transfer window for England opened on midnight after the last game of the season or something?

It's July 1st for other places, Like Italy, I guess.

july the 1st here too. clubs can sign players but they dont officially become their player until july the 1st i think. the transfer window is basically a registration period, so you can buy players but they arent officially yours until they register

Yep, July 1st for everyone so it's the same rule for all. Even though our league is over the 2008/09 season still hasn't officially finished.

Sorry, that's what I meant, signing Zhirkov the same way that Barry signed for Man City...was just a tad frustrated the day I wrote the original post, haha.