Chelsea will attempt to sign Adam Johnson from
Middlesbrough next summer if they succeed in their appeal against
Fifa’s transfer ban.
The 22-year-old winger is out of contract at the end of the
season and has rejected several offers of an extension, fuelling
fears at Middlesbrough that he will seek to walk away next
summer.
Chelsea would have to pay a transfer fee set by a tribunal
because Johnson is under the age of 24, but that is the least of
their problems. The club are banned from signing new players until
January 2011 after being found guilty by Fifa’s Dispute Resolution
Chamber of inducing Gaël Kakuta, a teenage French winger, to breach
his contract with Lens. Chelsea have been monitoring Johnson for
some time because he fits their preferred profile as a young
English player who can be secured relatively cheaply.
The boyhood Old Trafford fan has also been tracked by
Fergie for well over a year. He sees the left-sided midfielder, who
can also play on the right, as a possible long-term replacement for
Ryan Giggs
Carlo Ancelotti reignited his row with José Mourinho yesterday
by sarcastically implying that his predecessor as Chelsea manager
considers himself Jesus. “I don’t know ‘the Special One’,”
Ancelotti said. “If he thinks he is Jesus, I am certainly not one
of his disciples.”