Chelsea's radical overhaul starts with £16.1m capture of Bosingwa

Premiership

New Chelsea signing: Jose Bosingwa

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Chelsea will clear out up to eight of their first-team squad this summer in what is expected to be the most radical overhaul yet of a team who could be crowned European champions on 21 May. The club plan on thinning down their first-team squad considerably, with yesterday's new signing Jose Bosingwa one of a maximum of four new names that the manager, Avram Grant, expects to bring to Stamford Bridge.

The Portugal international was signed from Porto for £16.1m – his agent Jorge Mendes is the same man who agreed the deal to bring Jose Mourinho to Chelsea four years ago. The promptness of his signing is indicative of how the club plan to do all this summer's transfer business, and contract negotiations. They hope to have it all settled by the middle of next month before the chief executive, Peter Kenyon, visits China to finalise preparations for the team's pre-season tour.

Sources at Manchester United have denied reports that they were in the running to sign Bosingwa, a 25-year-old of Congolese descent who was converted from midfielder to full-back by Mourinho when he was the manager at Porto.

However, Chelsea now have some decisions of their own to make after the Spanish giants Barcelona let it be known this week that they were prepared to sell their Brazilian playmaker Ronaldinho as well as Deco and the former Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen.

As the biggest clubs in Europe begin to show their hands in the transfer market, Chelsea have to make a call on a player in whom they showed some interest when he was at his peak one year earlier. Now, however, the decision is not quite so straightforward, with the 28-year-old Brazilian injured and out of form in a Barcelona team who are also facing a major summer refit. As well as Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, Chelsea have to decide the futures of Juliano Belletti, Wayne Bridge, Tal Ben Haim, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Nicolas Anelka over the next month.

Bosingwa is not a signing to get hearts racing at Stamford Bridge. Rather he is regarded as a promising right-back who holds down a place in the Portugal first team ahead of his new Chelsea team-mate Paulo Ferreira – he plays at left-back for his country. Bosingwa is notable in his own country for being the driver in a car crash in May 2005; the accident resulted in one of his passengers, Sandro Luis, a lower division player, having his foot amputated.

Signed by Mourinho from Porto's neighbours Boavista in 2003, he has been compared to the World Cup-winning captain of Brazil, Cafu, in style after he was converted from an uncompromising holding midfielder. He turned down the opportunity to play for the Democratic Republic of Congo four years earlier and has established himself as the first-choice right-back ahead of Miguel, of Valencia, for this summer's Euro 2008 finals. Last night Bosingwa said that Chelsea had been his first choice. "I have friends who are at Chelsea and it's a club I feel I can improve at and grow as a player," he said. "I've always had a dream to play in England."

Chelsea's players were given yesterday off after their final day of the Premier League exertions against Bolton Wanderers but John Terry was back in the training ground for work on his dislocated left elbow. The Chelsea captain had massage and physiotherapy on the joint, although it is still too painful for him to be able to do simple exercises like clap his hands. The club want him back as soon as possible for training in preparation for the European Cup final in Moscow a week tomorrow, when he says he will be fit.

The prospect of losing Terry for the most crucial match of all was, Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel said, a problem but not a disaster for the team who have had to cope without their captain before. Terry has had cheekbone, foot and toe injuries already this season. "It's very important for the whole team that he is there for the final," Mikel said. "We all pray and hope he's going to be fit for the final. But we have proved all season we have players who will come up with the goods when we need them.

"When you look at this squad, look at this team, they're all big players. When we want them to stand up and be counted, they've always done that. I'm a young player, playing for this team but I respect the big players for what they've done. When we need them to go and do that, they've always done it. I respect them for that."

"We know what happened last year, when they [United] won the league but we beat them in the FA Cup final. Now we need to try to repeat that again. We will just have to wait and see. We have to keep working hard and make sure Moscow is a whole different ball game. They've won the title so we have to make sure we go there and win the Champions League. It's going to be do or die – but we have to win."