Matic is going to fit perfectly into our team. I know i shouldn't overhype it but i can't wait to see him back in the shirt :D

Had a horrible thought.

Spurs gazump us.

Had a horrible thought.

Spurs gazump us.

Nah, Matic wants to fight for the title not safety

I wouldn't trust either of them to come in for Oscar if he got injured. We don't HAVE to sell Mata.

Not while he is under contract no we do not. But is it fair to have a player of such ability end up as a mere backup?

Boom

The Berkeley?

 

Pfft, cheapskate.

Well we wont be getting dominated in CM with Ramires and Matic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTDj0fS2Uck&list=HL1389741788&feature=mh_lolz

Edited January 14, 201412 yr by jack_super_class

Boom

 

His feet are enormous

 

Theyre like flippers for goods sake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTDj0fS2Uck&list=HL1389741788&feature=mh_lolz

<br />Great video. Looks very one footed, but at least it's the left one.

Not while he is under contract no we do not. But is it fair to have a player of such ability end up as a mere backup?

 

Whether it is fair or not, i don't care. He is under contract at Chelsea and i want him fighting for his spot, even if that means he continues to get less games than Oscar next season. I want us competing for all competitions, it's good to have the quality of Mata around when we need him.

 

We ain't the only top club with great players on the bench, it's one of the reasons why these teams are always competing for the top prizes. Look at Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, they all have brilliant players that can come off the bench or fill in when needed.

 

Having world class players around is needed to win the big competitions.

Edited January 15, 201412 yr by Scott Harris

Some tweets from Jan Hagen, a Portuguese football journalist:

Jan Hagen ?@PortuBall

So, If you want a DM who is great at tackling, intercepting, heading, reading the game and play the killer pass, Matic is the man for you.

Jan Hagen ?@PortuBall

He reminds me of a more defensive/deep-playing Yaya Toure. Great at intercepting the ball and good at passing.

Jan Hagen ?@PortuBall

If A Bola's fee on €25,3m for Matic is true we've just witnessed a daylight robbery. He's a beast with a €50m release clause/long contract.

 

Well if he's actually that good then i'm very excited, this is the kind of player that can transform an entire team.

in some of his quotes printed on previous page, Matic talked about his desire to work for best manager in Mourinho...while we always stood a chance of getting him back, having jose in charge must give us such an edge in transfers...supposedly utd were after him...well how would you react if you get a call from Moyes and Mourinho..it's no contest is it...bit like willian with avb or jose...a wannabe or the special one...mmm...tough choice!

Seems to have much more to his game than Mikel does. And he passes the ball with a bit of zip to it. Something i think Mikel needs to do more often as he usually brings the tempo right down

Whether it is fair or not, i don't care. He is under contract at Chelsea and i want him fighting for his spot, even if that means he continues to get less games than Oscar next season. I want us competing for all competitions, it's good to have the quality of Mata around when we need him.

 

We ain't the only top club with great players on the bench, it's one of the reasons why these teams are always competing for the top prizes. Look at Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, they all have brilliant players that can come off the bench or fill in when needed.

 

Having world class players around is needed to win the big competitions.

In an ideal world we would be back to the 'at least 2 quality players per position' mantra we once had I agree. I do not want Juan sold or to leave, I just wonder if he will be happy if he ends up on our bench a lot of the time.

Supposedly KDB is on the way out for 17.5m and Matic on the way in for 20.7m, what a great improvement for 3.2m. Very excited, I feel this as our biggest weakness dealt with.

1 out of 2 in terms of the weaknesses. Striker comes in the summer I reckon. Anyway good business in the january if these two deals go through. We'd be more balanced. Less crowd in the AM's and more bodies for middle of the park and more qualiy which is the key.

http://www.oneworldsports.com/stories/chelsea-acquire-nemanja-matic-after-drama

Looks like what we'd hoped McEachran would turn out to be. A Carrick sort of player, but more aggressive and mobile.

http://www.oneworldsports.com/stories/chelsea-acquire-nemanja-matic-after-drama/

 

It took more than half a year to get Roman Abramovich to sanction the purchase, but Jose Mourinho finally has his man. When Chelsea's returning manager delivered his plans for the restructure of a badly imbalanced squad last summer, Nemanja Matic was central to it. The midfielder is ideally suited to astutely turn defense into attack, the core of Mourinho's football.

 

That the transfer took until January to happen came down to two factors. First, Benfica judged the market's interest in a player who'd excelled in their run to a Europa League Final meeting with Chelsea sufficient to refer shoppers to the €50million buyout clause in his recently improved contract. Second, whatever figure Chelsea managed to negotiate that down to would still represent an embarrassing mark-up on the pittance they'd let Matic join Benfica three years ago.

 

That winter window, the Serbia international was a 22-year-old cog in the Abramovich global talent machine. Acquired from Slovak side FC Kosice 16 months previously, he'd been through one anonymous season at Stamford Bridge before being shifted out on loan to Dutch feeder club Vitesse Arnhem. Under Carlo Ancelotti, active service amounted to three second-half substitute appearances in easy victories over W-clubs. Twenty-one minutes in a 4-0 defeat of Wolves, 26 minutes in a 5-0 with Watford, and 21 in an 8-0 with Wigan.

 

When Benfica announced the €25m sale of David Luiz to the Portuguese stock market in January 2011, the young midfielder they took from Chelsea to sweeten the deal didn't even merit a fiscal valuation. “Please note that the agreement also provides for the outright transfer of all economic and sporting rights of the international athlete Nemanja Matic,” the Lisbon club stated.

 

As Abramovich did not achieve obscene affluence by selling low and buying high, Matic's return to Stamford Bridge required patience and good fortune. By late autumn, Mourinho knew his midfield was dangerously overstretched. Marco van Ginkel's young legs had been lost to a season-ending injury and Frank Lampard was too old to play every game. Though Mourinho loved Ramires' dynamism in the center of the field, he needed a player alongside him who could use the ball more intelligently.

 

Again the Portuguese preferred Matic, yet once more loomed the brick wall of price and history. “Benfica want too much money,” was the word as an alternative target was proposed. With Internazionale floating a fee of £15m for Fredy Guarin, Mourinho approved a move for him. Guarin's advisors were asked to state terms for joining and, according to a well-placed source, asked for €4.5m a year, after tax, a €1m net increase on his Inter salary.

 

Big mistake. Chelsea were informed that the former FC Porto midfielder was actually on just €2.5m net in Italy and terminated their interest. All very principled, yet not at all helpful to their manager.

Then came Matic's own tactical intervention. The Serb felt he'd developed as much as he could in Lisbon and wanted the opportunity to prove himself again at Chelsea. He also knew Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira scented a big payday; one likely to be too large for Abramovich to approve.

 

The player himself denies it, but Matic came up with a joker. On Sunday night, Benfica were due to face Porto -- their biggest home match of the season. Matic arrived three hours late for his team's overnight “concentration.” According to multiple sources, his tardiness was intentional; the result of a threat not to turn out in the top-of-the-table encounter unless Vieira accepted Chelsea's lowball offer.

 

Matic played, Benfica won 2-0, and by the next evening their star midfielder was giving an interview to Portuguese sports daily A Bola in which he announced the win had been “my last game” for Benfica, and that “I wanted to go to Chelsea, even if Benfica had better options.”

 

Vieira was said to be “furious” over the corner Matic had painted him into, angered at the straight cash fee of €25m he'd been forced to agree with Chelsea, and frustrated by their refusal to include Oriol Romeu as a Matic-like makeweight in the transaction. The Spain under-21 midfielder remains on loan at Valencia.

Chelsea's PR position on the embarrassing buyback is strengthened by the imminent sale of Kevin De Bruyne to Wolfsburg in a deal that is understood to be worth an initial £16m. Performance-related variables could inflate that take to £25m. Not bad for a 22-year-old reserve who showed no appetite for taking tactical lessons from Mourinho.

 

Matic flew to London on Tuesday, having disavowed the personal strike story -- “It never crossed my mind, nor did I make any kind of threat,” he told A Bola -- and promised Abramovich value for some grudgingly invested cash.

 

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

 

A grand day for Mourinho and Matic. Not quite so promising for Manchester City.

Edited January 15, 201412 yr by abramovich

Taken from The Times again:

Chelsea step up bid to secure Nemanja Matic’s return for £22m

Chelsea are closing in on the signing of Nemanja Matic after agreeing a £22 million fee with Benfica for the Serbia midfielder last night.

The clubs are continuing to negotiate over potential add-ons to the deal, with Benfica seeking to take one or two Chelsea players on loan to add to the value of the transfer, but Matic flew to London for a medical yesterday and already regards himself as a Chelsea player.

Benfica rejected Chelsea’s opening bid of £21 million last weekend, as The Times reported on Monday, but with Matic determined to force through his return to Stamford Bridge amid suggestions that he was refusing to co-operate in training, the Portuguese club opted to accept a quick sale.

With the fee considerably lower than the £37 million buyout clause in Matic’s contract, Benfica are exploring the possibility of adding value to the transfer through loan deals, although that is complicated by the fact that so many of Chelsea’s young players are already on loan at other clubs.

Wallace, the Brazilian full back on loan at Inter Milan, and Ulises Dávila, a Mexican striker at Cordoba in the Spanish second division, have been mentioned in negotiations, but Chelsea were resisting both last night. Ironically, Matic only ended up at Benfica in the first place after being used as a makeweight in the deal that took David Luiz to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea are relaxed about paying almost eight times the amount they valued Matic at three years ago, pointing out that he was not wanted by Carlo Ancelotti, then the manager, and that his subsequent development might not have taken place had he stayed at the club. The 25-year-old is clearly desperate to return to Chelsea, however, pre-empting the deal by announcing his departure yesterday.

“I have played my last game here,” Matic said. “I want to thank all the people at the club and all the supporters. Benfica will for ever be in my heart. I played here for 2½ years. I gave my best in every training session, every match, 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.”

Frank Lampard has returned to training after 2½ weeks out with a hamstring injury and is hopeful of — being fit for Sunday’s Barclays Premier League match at home to Manchester United.

Edited January 15, 201412 yr by Huttsey

BBC's reporting it now, which normally means a deal is as good as done:

 

Nemanja Matic will undergo a medical with Chelsea ahead of a proposed £21m return to the club.

The 25-year-old Benfica midfielder arrived in London from Lisbon on Tuesday night.

He is close to completing a move back to the club he left three years ago.

The Serb was valued at less than £5m in January 2011 when he left Stamford Bridge as a makeweight in the deal that saw defender David Luiz join Chelsea from Benfica.

Manager Jose Mourinho quickly identified the defensive midfielder as a key target on his return to Stamford Bridge and the club have no issue with re-signing a player they previously let go.

Chelsea will offset the cost of signing Matic with the £16m they will receive from the sale of Kevin De Bruyne to Wolfsburg.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25743128

 

I'm feeling very positive about this signing. Let's hope Nemanja's registered in time to play some part against United on Sunday.

If you take pride out of the equation, this does look like a good signing, he should settle much quicker than a player who hasn't been in the PL, let alone Chelsea before.