Matic remains coy: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/9115041/transfer-news-benfica-midfielder-nemanja-matic-open-to-chelsea-return

The Guardian reporting it as pretty much a done deal:

 

"Chelsea are to re-sign Nemanja Matic for an eye-catching fee of around £22m, a vastly inflated price from the valuation attached to the Serbia midfielder when he was allowed to leave and join Benfica three years ago.

 

Matic is due at Cobham on Tuesday to undertake a medical with the clubs close to agreeing a price for the 25-year-old, who has been capped nine times. The defensive midfielder had pushed for a return to Stamford Bridge after a hugely impressive spell in Lisbon, with the outlay to bring him back to England to fall well short of the £37m buy-out clause in the player's contract. He is expected to sign a contract to 2017.

 

Yet the fee remains remarkable given Chelsea had considered Matic to be only a makeweight in the deal which brought David Luiz from Benfica in the 2011 mid-winter window, the midfielder's valuation at the time being placed at around £3m. The vast difference will be partly offset by the sale of Kevin De Bruyne to Wolfsburg for around £18m, with that transfer finally to be concluded in the next 24 hours."

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/13/jose-mourinho-chelsea-nemanja-matic

Well 22 million is still a far cry from some of the other figures bandied about earlier in the season.

Edited January 14, 201412 yr by Teritus

Is this guy really the answer to our midfield needs? Does he look like the next Frank? I dont know enough about him. Its weird were signing a player for 20+ mil this morning and its no big deal. I hope he shows me that i should have made a big deal about it..

Is this guy really the answer to our midfield needs? Does he look like the next Frank?

 

We dont need him to be the next Frank

I also wonder what his wages will be like compared to de Bruyne's, considering de Bruyne is probably the more famous player and clearly likes to get his own way.

 

If we end up [effectively] swapping de Bruyne for Matic + £3m but on lower wages it's a bit of a coup for our squad.

Another good article about the two deals on WAGNH:

 

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2014/1/14/5306994/chelsea-rebalance-squad

 

From the conclusion:

 

But football clubs cannot be run on emotion alone. The squad is out of balance, and this week we'll see Michael Emenalo take the first big step in fixing it. Sending a sixth-choice player, albeit one with bags of potential, to the Bundesliga in exchange for a hefty profit is a good enough move. When that money is then turned into one of Portugal's best midfielders, we've made a massive improvement to the team without too much in the way of a sacrifice.

A player who's never getting minutes in exchange for someone we expect to be a regular starter? For the rest of this season, that's a no-brainer. And if de Bruyne turns into an elite player who we 'let get away' for 20 million... what do we think the chances are that he turns out better than one of Eden Hazard or Oscar?

Great work by Emenalo if we somehow managed to buy Matic for "just" £22m. Thats a bargain in todays market for the best midfielder in Portugal.

Very athletic lad. He's covered the most ground in the champions league this season, so he's perfect for our high pressing.

 

Another danger at set pieces is welcome too.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9115579/transfer-news-nemanja-matic-confirms-he-is-leaving-benfica-for-chelsea?

 

Nemanja Matic has stated to A Bola that he has played his last game for Benfica and that he wants rejoin Chelsea.

The 25-year-old spent two years with Chelsea before leaving in 2011 in the deal which brought David Luiz from Benfica.

Matic has since emerged as one of the top midfielders in Europe and now he is in line for a move back to Stamford Bridge.

Reports in Portugal claim that Chelsea will pay around £25million for the Serb, and also send winger Gael Kakuta to the Estadio da Luz on loan.

Matic has now confirmed that the weekend win over Porto was his last game and told A Bola: "The game against FC Porto was my last game for Benfica.

"I want to thank everyone at the club and all the fans. Benfica will forever be in my heart.

"I played here for two-and-a-half years, gave my best at every training session, and now it is the right moment to leave.

"I want to improve, I want to play in a better league and I want to go to Chelsea, a club I also love.

"I would also like to thank Benfica's president, he did everything he could to keep me, but I wanted to leave.

"I insisted on leaving because I think this is the right moment."

Duncan Castles has a full version.

A Bola: Can you guarantee that the game against Porto was your last in the service of Benfica? 

Matic: "Yes, it was my last game. I want to thank all the people at the club and all the supporters. Benfica will forever be in my heart. I played here two and a half years, I gave my best in every training session, every game, and now is the right time to leave. I want to improve, I want to go to a better league and I want to go to Chelsea, the club which I also love. I also thank the president of Benfica, who did everything he could to keep me here but I have wanted to leave and I insisted on leaving. I respect the effort made ??to keep me at the club, he and all the people of Benfica were very good to me, they made ??me happy, but I repeat that I insisted on going because I understood that the moment is right." 

How is your relationship with Benfica's president Luis Filipe Vieira? 

“We have a perfect relationship because he is a good man and a good president, very fond of club. He really tried everything to keep me, but my decision was made. I leave with Benfica in my heart. 

Do you think the fans will understand your decision? 
NM: “I hope so, sincerely. I have always given my best for the team, the club and the supporters. I hope they recognize that and understand my position and my desire. 

It is true that on the eve of the Porto game you did not prepare with the team as a way of exerting pressure? 
NM: “No. The only truth in this story is that I went to the concentration a few hours late, I was authorized by the club to deal with personal problems and after that I went quickly to Seixal. 

“I wanted to go to Chelsea, even if Benfica had better options. I was very young when I was at Chelsea and I didn't show all I could. Now I want to show that I have quality to play there. It's a top club and I want to work with one of the best managers in the world. 

“When I first went to Chelsea I was very young and there were great players in my position. I really had few chances to play back then. Now it's different: I'm 25, I'm not the same player who left Chelsea. I'm sure [Abramovich] knows that. Now I have the chance to go back and work with one of the best manager in the world.”

Soooo, when should we start refreshing the official CFC site?

Soooo, when should we start refreshing the official CFC site?

I've been smashing my F5 key since dawn. 

Great work by Emenalo if we somehow managed to buy Matic for "just" £22m. Thats a bargain in todays market for the best midfielder in Portugal.

Yes, considering Benfica sold Axel Witsel for €40m. Then €25m for Matic, who is arguably a better player,doesn't look like a bad deal.

Interesting to think how Matic would have progressed if we had kept him. Would he be getting game time or at loan at some championship club?

Might take a little tine to settle back on but could be a major difference this season

Were signing a top class player in a position that were short in and people still find something to moan about!

 

Buying back a player for a big fee after selling him for a pittance two years ago. Sorry but the club is going to get some stick for this one!

Buying back a player for a big fee after selling him for a pittance two years ago. Sorry but the club is going to get some stick for this one!

 

Damned if you do, damned if you don't at Chelsea Football Club.

 

Criticism is like water off a duck's back to us now days. 

We are going to get stick from the cluless... by the way we also sacked the best manager in the world went through various options only to get him back some 7 years on, now that was a mistake.

It's actually great sense from the club to deal with what is in front of them and not get blinded by the fact that he used to play for us and it looks like a loss etc etc... its a sunk cost that's all, Forget about it.

The mandate is to improve were we are week we all know that's in two positions, centre mid and up front. So who's the best value for money right now in terms of the quality we need and meeting our objectives. It would be stupid and Naive to take the past in to consideration. So as I said that the beginning those who think it's dumb based on the fact we are paying out more then we sold him for should never be aloud to run a lemon juice stand let alone think about the decisions being made at a football club.

Something else worth mentioning and I'm not 100% sure about this, I think at the time we had some problems with Matic's permit. He hand't played enough games for us to have it renewed and at the time he didn't have enough caps for serbia. I think we had to send him on loan and with his contract running down it wasn't looking like we would get the permit approved. So it wasn't entirly illogical to P/E him even if we knew then what we know now... and by the way, people forget Luiz is a supperb player and now we have both

Buying back a player for a big fee after selling him for a pittance two years ago. Sorry but the club is going to get some stick for this one!

 

Players are hard to gauge the potential of. 

 

A costly mistake, but it would be even worse to see him flourish into a world class midfielder, knowing we sold him for hardly anything. 

 

If we did include a buy back clause, I think it was quite smart. People are also forgetting we got David Luiz for him. A Fifpro team of the year contender and a player who has grown so much at Chelsea.

Don't think he would have progressed as much if he had stayed with us, too much pressure to win trophies. Reminds me of a young Ballack and as for the price, Utd fans will give an arm to buy back Pogba.

Personally don't see any of our youngsters making the step up to the first team in the next few years even with the Vitesse tie-up, but won't be the worst idea sending some of our top prospects to Benfica as part of the Matic deal to polish them up.

Buying back a player for a big fee after selling him for a pittance two years ago. Sorry but the club is going to get some stick for this one!

He probably wouldn't have developed into the player he is now here so if we still had him he'd probably be out on loan to some lower league/ championship club.

Yep we look a bit silly for the matic affair, I didn't understand why we let him go int he first place, you could see he wasa. Real presence in just the appearances he made for us...

but we have counted that by getting a ridiculous fee for de bruyne, who has done very little In his career so far...who knows, he may become a great, he may just be average, but right now, Wolfsburg are effectively providing the money to help solve a real problem position...let's not look back, let's just look forward to the future and having a proper defensive midfielder at last.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't at Chelsea Football Club.

Criticism is like water off a duck's back to us now days.

I cannot see why this is getting criticism at all personally.

We've sold a player in a position where we're oversubscribed and replaced him with a player where we are undersubscribed. The overall squad is improved at very little cost.

To me this is an excellent piece of business.

Edited January 14, 201412 yr by Huttsey

Most people see him as dmc or mc .

 

He is natural on these positions , but , back then  when he played for serbia u21 nt , he had a role of left wing , and was very piercing.