• Brazil centre-back's signing may involve Chelsea
player swap
• Costliest transfer since Andriy Shevchenko's £30m arrival
Chelsea
are confident of completing the
transfer of David Luiz from Benfica within the next 48 hours, with the fee of around
£21.5m their biggest outlay on a player since Andriy Shevchenko's
£30m arrival from Milan five years ago.
The centre-half's signing is part
of an attempt by Carlo
Ancelotti to salvage Chelsea's
season after the manager admitted before tonight's game at
Bolton Wanderers that his team have failed to marry a
positive performance and result for almost four months. The
champions have not won away in seven matches but Ancelotti goes
back even further, to the game at home to Arsenal on
3 October, to pinpoint a good display that yielded
victory.
That win had moved Chelsea clear at the top of the Premier
League but their worst run of form in 15 years has left them
trailing the leaders, Manchester United, by 10 points and
effectively forced them into the transfer market. Talks will resume
today with Benfica's president, Luís Filipe Vieira, aimed at
securing Luiz, with the possibility remaining that a young player
could move in the opposite direction, most likely on loan, as part
of the deal.
The defenders Jeffrey Bruma or Patrick van Aanholt have been
mentioned and Chelsea could explore involving as a makeweight the
Serbia defender Slobodan Rajkovic, who is on loan at Vitesse Arnhem
but does not qualify for a work permit in England. An agreement
with Benfica is edging closer after Vieira spent the weekend in
London, along with Luiz's agent, Giuliano Bertolucci.
Luiz was omitted from the Benfica squad for the 4-2 victory over
Nacional on Saturday, a clear indication that his club are resigned
to losing his services. Chelsea had drawn up a list of alternative
targets, believed to include Wolfsburg's Denmark international
Simon Kjaer, but are confident they will be able to announce Luiz's
eye-catching purchase this week.
Ancelotti will be anxious that the 23-year-old Brazil
international, who will be cup-tied in the Champions League, is
joining a club who can still realistically retain the Premier
League title. Given that the Italian envisages 80 points will be
needed to secure the championship – which would mean Chelsea could
drop only six more from their final 16 games – a win tonight is
imperative.
Asked to identify the last time he had been satisfied with his
team's display and the result, Ancelotti said: "Against Arsenal at
home, when we played well. I was happy with the way we played at
Birmingham last month but not with the result [a 1-0 defeat]. Three
and a half months is too long. Too long."
Chelsea, who will be without Frank Lampard with the midfielder's
minor calf complaint not to be risked, can take some solace in the
fact that they are still to play United twice, as well as
Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur at home.
"We play them and Liverpool at home, and those five games will
be key," Ancelotti said. "We have to win them. But the fact that
there are five teams going for the title is good for those of us
chasing. There is more competition, and therefore more possibility
for the teams at the top to drop points. We will try everything to
do win the three competitions we are still in."
Ancelotti, who has given the go-ahead for the talks to continue
with Fulham over Gaël Kakuta moving there on loan for the rest
of the season, admitted he had "made some mistakes" that had
contributed to the side's dip in form over the last few months,
though he believes the points deficit from United can be clawed
back if his team achieve consistency over the second half of the
season. He has experience of chasing down a leader as Roma's
captain in 1986, albeit that campaign had a sting in its tail.
"I remember that year we needed to close a gap of eight points,
with two points for a win, to Juventus over the last two months of
the season and we achieved it," said Ancelotti.
"We arrived at the last game level with Juve and had to play
Lecce, the team at the bottom, at home. The Lecce manager, Eugenio
Fascetti, said before the match that he hated Juventus and was a
Roma fan, and there was almost a celebration before the match as if
everything would be OK. We ended up losing 3-2 and Juventus went on
to win the title. Everything went dark. Such is life."