Sidwell agrees to join Chelsea on free transfer
Chelsea have confirmed that midfielder Steve Sidwell has agreed to
join the club on a free transfer from July 1.
The 24-year-old has quit Reading after rejecting a new
£25,000-per-week, four-year deal.
Former champions Chelsea have been consistently linked with a move
for the highly-rated midfielder throughout the season.
Sidwell opted to join the Blues despite interest from Newcastle
United, Everton and Aston Villa.
He is Jose Mourinho's first signing of the summer and will be a
valuable addition to the squad.
The Portuguese coach is now hoping to add a striker and a defender
to the ranks.
Chelsea winger Arjen Robben is also close to agreeing a new deal at
Stamford Bridge.
The club have been in talks for weeks over a new contract extension
and the player's agent and father, Hans Robben, expects the Dutch
winger to shortly sign a new five-year deal.
The 23-year-old has been linked with a move to Bayern Munich but
insists he wants to remain at Chelsea after their 1-0 FA Cup final
victory over Manchester United at Wembley on Saturday.
Chelsea are believed to be ready to offer Robben an improved
five-year deal and Robben senior confirmed: 'We are close to a new
deal. We have not agreed all the details, but I don't expect any
big problems any more.'
And when asked about the link with Bayern Munich, Robben senior
added: 'Nonsense. Of course there were several clubs last period
who asked for Arjen, but we always had the intention to come to an
agreement with Chelsea. That they will now sign him for five years,
proves their confidence in his qualities.'
Meanwhile, Andriy Shevchenko's advisors have moved swiftly to deny
that his potential appearance at tomorrow's Champions League final
in Athens has nothing to do with speculation linking him with a
return to AC Milan.
Shevchenko has been invited to attend the final as a guest of
Milan.
The 30-year-old won the European Cup in 2003, beating Juventus, but
was on the losing side when Milan lost to tomorrow's opponents
Liverpool on penalties in 2005.
Despite joining Chelsea for nearly £30million last summer the
Ukraine international has been regularly linked with a return to
the San Siro.
But, although he has yet to decide whether to attend the match, a
statement from management company WMG, said: 'Andriy is not in
talks of any kind with AC Milan - he has a contract with Chelsea
and that is the end of the matter.
'AC Milan have invited a whole host of former players to this
showpiece match and Andriy is just one of those players. There is
nothing else to it and he will decide whether to attend
tomorrow.'
Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport have ruled that FIFA
must penalise Adrian Mutu with financial penalties for breaching
the terms of his Chelsea contract.
The Romania striker, now with Fiorentina, had his contract
terminated by Chelsea after he tested positive for cocaine in
October 2004.
He joined Juventus on a free transfer during his seven-month
suspension, even though he had cost Chelsea £15million.
The Blues successfully claimed Mutu had breached the terms of his
contract by failing the drugs test and called on FIFA to decide on
a compensation figure for the player to pay them.
Mutu argued he should not be liable to pay any compensation and
FIFA said they did not have the jurisdiction to make any
order.
However, the governing body must now make the decision after
Chelsea took their case to the CAS and had their appeal
upheld.
A statement from the CAS read: 'CAS has upheld the appeal filed by
Chelsea FC against a decision rendered on 26 October 2006 by the
FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) concerning the Romanian
football player Adrian Mutu.
'In its decision, the FIFA DRC denied jurisdiction to determine
what sporting sanction and/or financial compensation should be
imposed upon the player further to the breach of his contract with
Chelsea FC.'
