One player Ancelotti is rumoured to be considering is Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko. The 23 year old scored 26 goals for Wolfsburg last season, helping them to the Bundesliga title and is fast earning himself a reputation as one of the most exciting young strikers in Europe. 

As with Yuri Zhirkov, who’s apparently expected at Stamford Bridge for a medical, Milan also have their eye on him but Chelsea are said to be confident that their planned bid of £20million will be enough to see him come to Stamford Bridge.

Another player rumoured to be in Ancelotti’s sights is Real Madrid winger Wesley Sneijder. Although the 25 year old doesn’t seem all that keen on leaving, he says “I’d like to stay and hope coach Manuel Pellegrini will give me a chance but there are many rumours.” And with those rumours rife following the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo at the Bernabeu, it seems Chelsea are prepared to try their luck.

How shrewd are Chelsea eh?

Amid the growing speculation over a possible move to Man City for John Terry, whilst supporters are in full blown panic mode, the club are opting for the pragmatic approach – and it has to be said it’s a pretty smart move on their part.

You see, whilst the club’s official line is to insist they still do not want to sell the Chelsea captain, with some pretty strong rumours flying around suggesting it was the player himself who put the feelers out in the first place, Chelsea look to be calling his bluff. City are alleged to have already offered £30million, with an improved offer said to be imminent and Chelsea’s stance now is that if Terry wants to leave Stamford Bridge he can do so under two conditions – the first is that City would have to pay £45million and the second is that Terry has to hand in a transfer request.

Brilliant bit of PR there by the club really because whilst £45million for a central defender with a bit of a dodgy back, really would be hard to turn down, Terry’s position at the club – particularly with the supporters – also makes it almost impossible for the club to accept. On the other hand, if they can force Terry’s hand by getting him to hand in a transfer request – thereby admitting to the supporters that he wants to leave – then the club can’t lose.

Terry’s contract doesn’t run out until 2012 and whilst the club might be open to a bit of a pay rise – if that’s what all this is really about – there’s no way they’d be prepared to compete with the rumoured £280,000-£300,000 a week City are willing to pay.

So, I guess the ball has been put firmly in ‘Mr Chelsea’s’ court.

Even after the obscene amount of money Real Madrid have spent so far since the close of season, rumour has it they’re wetting themselves at the prospect of slinging some of their millions Chelsea’s way – for Ashley Cole.

Apparently, the Chelsea left-back has turned down the offer of a new deal because it’d leave him about £30,000 shy of our top earners. I won’t get too carried away by a story in The Sun but I suppose there’s a bit of me thinking this is ‘Cashley’ we’re talking about here, so it’s little wonder it’s got Real’s attention as well.

Anyway, our old friend ‘the source’ reliably informs us “Ashley loves Chelsea and is genuinely excited about working with new boss Carlo Ancelotti.  He wants to give the best years of his career to the club but the deal has to be right for such an important contract.  He needs to feel as valued as any of the club’s other top players.”

And so, I suppose if we’re offering him some paltry deal where we expect him to scrape by on a measly £100,000 a week, then it’s not really surprising Pellegrini is rumoured to be sniffing around.

It’s starting to look as if after just one season at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea could have a bit of a battle on their hands trying to keep hold of Jose Bosingwa.

To be fair, the former Porto player’s nose must be severely put out of joint right now, seeing as not only does he seem to still be at the club because we didn’t sign Glen Johnson, but also because Bayern Munich didn’t take him as a sweetener in the deal we’d hoped to do over Franck Ribery.

Bosingwa is still under contract with us until 2011, however, Bayern Munich are in the market for a decent right-back and chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge remains interested in the 26 year old (albeit not with a view to us signing Ribery) and says “we are convinced about Bosingwa and that he would fit in really well at FC Bayern.  I don’t think the book has been closed on this issue yet.”

So, with the clubs said to remain in “serious contact”, I guess we’ll just have to see what happens with this one.

Are Man City the new Real Madrid or what?

And before the comments flood in about my state of mind, no of course I’m not seriously comparing the two clubs in terms of history and success, more in terms of ego and sheer bloody cheek really.

I mean, it’s pretty well known that once they’ve set their sights on a player, Real will go to just about any lengths (usually publicly) to get their man - jumping through hoops to beg via the press if that’s what it takes, irrespective of whatever statements the player or his club may have made to spurn their advances. And it seems City are planning to use the same cringe-worthy tactics when it comes to John Terry because despite the club and the player publicly making it clear a move to Eastlands is about as likely to happen as Hilario being our top scorer next season, reports in the press suggest they’re refusing to give up the chase.

Not for the first time, Chelsea have issued a statement telling City (politely of course) to forget any ideas they’ve got about the Chelsea captain. Following an offer from City, Chelsea officials stated “We can confirm we have completely rejected an offer from Manchester City for John Terry.  It was made clear to City, for a second time following an approach last season, that we would not entertain any conversation on the subject. At the time, John also reiterated his total commitment to Chelsea. We would like to make it clear, and will not do so again, that John is not for sale.”

Pretty clear NO then you’d think? Except there seems to be a part of the word ‘no’ that them at Eastlands can’t quite get their heads round. Because, according to the press, City still aren’t ready to back off just yet. You see, despite both the player and the club making their feelings perfectly clear in January, so far this time it’s only the club issuing a statement, so apparently on the strength of that City think they’re still in with a chance and we’re told to expect yet another offer in the near future.

Far be it from me to piss on their fireworks but has anyone told that lot at Eastlands the reason Terry hasn’t said anything is because he’s on holiday?

Earlier this week, TheChelseaBlog looked at the three players rumoured to be on their way to Stamford Bridge and reports have confirmed today the second of those has signings is now official. After confirmation yesterday of Ross Turnball’s arrival, today brings the news that we’ve officially signed Daniel Sturridge from Man City on a four year contract.

The Under-20 England international, voted City’s Young Player of the Year last season, links up with his new team mates next week for pre-season training.

There were a couple of interviews with John Terry doing the rounds yesterday – one about his concerns that he isn’t even guaranteed a starting place yet next season nevermind the captaincy, and the other about him defending Didier Drogba’s behaviour after the Champions League semi against Barcelona.

I have to admit when I read his interview defending Drogba, I thought he had every right to be worried about his position at Chelsea. I mean, for a start, Uefa have only just dished out hefty punishments for two of the players involved so you can just see their eyebrows fixed in the ‘what the fuck’ position as they read the interview over their cocoas last night. I’m not all that sure the FA will appreciate the England captain publicly flying smack in the face of their ‘Respect The Ref’ campaign either come to think of it by suggesting “I am fully behind Didier Drogba for the way he reacted.  The man wants to win. You can see the passion that he played with during the game and the passion afterwards.  It is difficult when players are so high on emotions after the game and people were saying in the Sky TV studios that we shouldn’t be reacting the way we did.  That’s impossible after having six or seven decisions go against you at home in front of your own fans. I’ve seen them all and two were clear penalties and you don’t get one. How are you supposed to feel?  If we had been given one of those penalties we would have been cruising at 2-0. We did exactly what the manager asked of us but we are not going through because of a bad refereeing decision.”

The Chelsea captain goes on to say “It’s a shambles really. Players dream of playing in these finals but we can’t through bad refereeing.  We get a referee who has refereed ten Champions League games in his career and for him to be given the semi-final at Stamford Bridge is not good enough.  If a referee makes bad decisions, he should face the consequences. If a player makes mistakes time after time, he will be dropped from the team, but referees just keep getting the big games at big stadiums.  It is down to Uefa to be strong enough and say these are our four best referees and they are going to referee the home and away legs.  Both sides had experienced players but we just didn’t have the referee to go with a big game.  Not one player made a mistake over the two legs but we come away with a referee making four or five big errors and now we are out of the competition.  Maybe that referee would have been good enough in the group stages of the Champions League but on a big stage, with a big game and big players, he simply wasn’t good enough.”

Now, I have to be honest, when I first read the interview I wondered what he was playing at. In fact, I think my exact words were “why is he running off at the mouth now? It’s gone, he’s pushing his luck.”

Hadn’t he just said “I want to make sure first and foremost that I am in the Chelsea team. I want to be the captain of Chelsea next year, but the manager is yet to make those decisions.  These are things that go through your mind as a player. It doesn’t matter who you are — when a manager comes into the football club he can have different ideas.  You have seen in the England team with Michael Owen that when people are out of favour, they don’t get a look in”? So surely, with Ancelotti only just in the door, Terry should be a little less outspoken in the press – particularly around such an emotive subject? Or is it really the case – as Makelele has recently claimed – that John Terry can pretty much say and do what he likes at Chelsea?

Well, maybe there is a bit of truth in there somewhere but I can’t help thinking that with not all that much excitement going on on the transfer front at Chelsea (no disrespect Ross J), the press are doing their best to create their own stories – aka regurgitate old interviews to suit. You see, when you read his words back, they’re clearly in the present tense…..”we’re not going through…”, so just like Drogba’s behaviour (although we all accept he went too far), Terry’s words were probably heat of the moment stuff when like the rest of us, he probably wanted to strangle Ovrebo.

Is he right to worry about the captaincy though?

It’s official, we really have signed ourselves a new addition to the squad – in the form of Ross Turnball.

The former Middlesbrough keeper decided not to renew his contract at The Riverside following their relegation (I’ll never tire of saying that J) and hot on the heels of this week’s speculation, it’s been confirmed this evening that the 24 year old has joined us on a free transfer.    

Hilario has apparently also signed a new two year deal, keeping him at the club until 2011, so between the sticks at least, it looks as if we’ve got the competition Petr Cech seemed to miss last term.

So, Yuri Zhirkov, Daniel Sturridge and Ross Turnball are all set to become Chelsea players but are these the sort of players we had in mind when we thought about summer signings?

Ross Turnball declined to renew his contract with relegated (snigger) Middlesbrough and looks all set to provide some competition in the Chelsea goal for Petr Cech. Good signing or not? Well, for me, he’s English, he’s 24, he’ll come on a free transfer, and with Hilario currently our only back-up in goal – it certainly can’t do us any harm.

At 25 and able to play anywhere down the left side, Zhirkov could be a good signing. Having been linked with both Scolari and Hiddink – who referred to him as a ‘top class footballer’, it looks as if it’s Ancelotti who’s finally nailed him down in a four-year deal worth somewhere between £17 - £18million. Seems strange that we’d bring him in right after Malouda has signed a new contract although with him versatile enough to provide cover at left-back as well, there seems to be method in Chelsea’s madness – but where exactly does that leave the injured Joe Cole? Playing off the front man maybe?

Then again, if that attacking role was being considered for Cole, would we be signing City’s Daniel Sturridge? Again, English, just 19 and after the tribunal agrees the fee he’ll cost us somewhere between £5-£8million, so not a bad deal if he lives up to his potential. But of the three signings, I have to admit this is the one that raises the questions for me. Firstly, we already have a young striker in Franco di Santo, who up til now has barely had the opportunity to even show us his potential, nevermind realise it, so why would a 19 year old ex-City player be given any more of a chance? And secondly, if the plan is to bring Sturridge into the first team, where exactly is the place for Joe Cole to fight for?

Ok, so we’re all probably sick and tired of hearing about how miserable Deco is at Chelsea but there’s not much happening on the news front so I thought I might as well acknowledge his latest whinge.

Obviously we should be devastated he wants to leave because he’s clearly made such a huge impact, and we only paid £8million for the privilege of his vast contribution. Ok, to be fair he did have a good enough start to win the Barclays Player of the Month award in his first few weeks with us. Unfortunately though, he couldn’t keep it up and as early as November admitted he was struggling to keep up and it wasn’t long before questions were being asked when he seemed to be competing with Didier Drogba to see who could take the longest to recover from injury. Mind you, his motivation to get back to fitness did appear to improve once the internationals came round – marvelous what a bit of patriotism can do for a dodgy hamstring!

Anyway, enough flattery for now because when it comes to Chelsea, our ageing Portugueser is about as complimentary as our players were of Ovrebo’s Champions League performance. And having already tried the public declaration of love for Jose Mourinho and go to Inter as a way of getting out of Stamford Bridge – and getting no joy yet – Deco’s gone straight for the jugular by making it clear exactly how he feels about Roman Abramovich.

Obviously still a little pissed about Scolari’s sacking, Deco says of Abramovich “Chelsea are kind of his toy. Sometimes Abramovich makes decisions that go over the head of the director of football. The exit of Big Phil was rash.  Chelsea are a special club. If Big Phil was perhaps at Manchester United or Liverpool, they respect the coach and give him time to work. But Chelsea are different.”

So he reckons United and Liverpool would have put up with Scolari does he? For starters, they wouldn’t have given him the job in the first place and with competition what it is in the Premier League these days, they wouldn’t put up with their sides being ‘managed’ like that any more than Abramovich would.

Still, I for one am happy the whingeing little shit is miserable and moaning like a bitch because he’s showing his true colours and with him repeatedly telling us “Honestly, I did not like the experience at Chelsea. I’m looking for another club where I can feel good”, I hope Abramovich kicks his arse all the way down Fulham Broadway.