Chelsea captain John Terry believes that the club will spend big
in January due to avert any problems caused by the loss of players
to the African Nations Cup.
The CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) has temporarily suspended
the transfer ban imposed on the west London club, which would bar
them from operating on the market for two consecutive transfer
windows.
Terry believes that when this is coupled with the club's African
stars leaving for international duty, they will have to bring in
some reinforcements to steady the ship.
"It's good news about the transfer ban being suspended but we lose
four good players to the African Nations Cup in January anyway,"
Terry is quoted in The Sun as saying.
"I'm sure the club and the manager [Carlo Ancelotti] are looking
into that and having good talks with Roman [Abramovich].
"I wouldn't be surprised if we do go out and buy because we don't
know what's going to happen in the summer - or the following
summer."
The Stamford Bridge coffers have traditionally been quiet around
the winter transfer period. The last time the club went on a
mid-season shopping spree was in 2008, when they bought Nicolas
Anelka, Branislav Ivanovic and Franco di Santo to counter the
call-ups of Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and John
Obi Mikel.
That same quartet is set to ship out to Angola this time around,
but Terry believes that this should not pose a problem when it
comes to the question of their title rivals reducing the Blues'
five-point lead in the league.
"We're going well at the minute and we're lucky enough to have a
big squad with good players who can come in if we get a couple of
injuries," he said.
"Looking at it realistically, we're maybe going to be suspended in
the summer window and maybe another one after that.
"The manager has great experience and he knows what we need."