Jose Mourinho has agreed a deal to
re-join Chelsea as their manager this summer – and
is poised to bring €59 million
striker Radamel Falcao with him.
Africatopforum.com understands that the Real Madrid boss is expected to
be unveiled in the Stamford
Bridge hot seat at the end of the
season following a breakthrough
in negotiations with the club over
the last week. The Chelsea high command, led by
Roman Abramovich, have been in
talks with Mourinho’s camp for
months about a sensational
return for the man who led the
club to two Premier League titles during his first spell in charge
from 2004-2007. Negotiations have centred on how
much control Mourinho will have in
recruiting players and staff, as
well as his place in a management
structure where low-profile
technical director Michael Emenalo holds the levers of power.
It is believed that, following a
series of twists and turns during
discussions, an agreement in
principle has been reached for
the Portuguese to take over
from interim manager Rafael Benitez this summer. Mourinho is expected to put pen
to paper and formalise the deal
when he ends his three-year spell
in Madrid at the end of next
month. A report in Germany last week
claimed that Chelsea were on the
brink of landing both Mourinho
and Atletico Madrid’s spearhead
Falcao. Goal.com understands that the
European champions have since
made further progress with both
deals and are confident that
Mourinho will announce the prolific
Colombian, who is also represented by super agent
Jorge Mendes, as one of his first
signings.
But his mind had been made up
and something similar happened
on Tuesday night. "Would he be
staying at Madrid?" he was asked.
"Maybe not - I love to be where
people love me to be," was his reply. So anywhere but Spain,
then, given all the problems he
has had with players, press and
just about everybody else. Down in the press room itself, he
was less forthcoming and claimed
he may still be at the Spanish side
next term. But he won't be. His
earlier words gave the game
away - he has never truly felt the love at Madrid and now is the
time to move on to a place where
he really does feel appreciated.
So Chelsea seems ideal.Chelsea,
who came close to landing Falcao
last August and then again in January, have been in talks with
Atletico top brass for weeks
about the structure of a deal
which is complicated by
uncertainty over the future of
goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who has been extremely impressive
since joining the Spanish club on
loan at the start of last season. Chelsea are prepared to allow the
Belgian keeper to continue his
development by staying in Madrid
for another season if it eases
Falcao's path to west London. The Blues have made it clear that
they are willing to activate the
€59m release clause in the
striker’s Atletico contract. The deal is a complex one because
of third-party ownership issues -
with Mendes part of a consortium
holding an interest in Falcao - but
Chelsea have intensified their
efforts to land the front man in a bid to ensure the transfer can be
completed. The London club have made Falcao
a contract offer and it is believed
that personal terms have already
been agreed on a deal that is
likely to make the striker one of
the highest paid players in Premier League history. Goal.com exclusively revealed in
March that the former Porto man
is chasing a deal worth around
€295,000 per week. Mourinho and senior Chelsea
officials regard the Colombian,
who has scored 32 goals in 36
games for Atletico this season, as
an upgrade on current front men
Fernando Torres and Demba Ba. Falcao has the pedigree and star
quality which Chelsea thought
they had acquired with the £50m
purchase of Torres in January
2010, but the Spaniard is now
likely to be put up for sale to help fund the purchase of the
player earmarked to be his
replacement.
Topic: Deals agreed: Mourinho &Falcao are Chelsea-bound After months ofnegotiations the Europeanchampions h (Read 1220 times)
