Chelsea confirm deal for Anzhi's Willian
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, August 26, 2013
Brazil playmaker Willian has agreed to join Chelsea from Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala, the English Premier League side said yesterday.
The transfer, however, is subject to a work permit hearing on Wednesday. "Chelsea Football Club can confirm an agreement has been reached with both Willian and his club for the transfer of the Brazilian player," the London club said in a statement on its website.
The 25-year-old appeared to be heading for London rival Tottenham Hotspur in a 30 million pound (US$46.72 million) deal after undergoing a medical at White Hart Lane on Wednesday but Chelsea made a late swoop for the attacking midfielder, who can also play as a winger.
It has been reported that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich approached his counterpart at the Dagestan-based club Suleiman Kerimov when a deal with Spurs appeared close.
Willian joined Anzhi from Shakhtar Donetsk in January, but the club's owner Kerimov has tightened the purse-strings, putting the entire first-team available for sale, reports said.
Should the transfer go through, Willian will join Germany forward Andre Schurrle and Dutch midfielder Marco van Ginkel as summer arrivals at Stamford Bridge, and will add another body to an already packed roster of attacking midfielders, including Juan Mata, Oscar, Eden Hazard, Victor Moses, Kevin De Bruyne and Schurrle.
Manager Jose Mourinho has hinted that some players would have to leave.
Media reports have also suggested Chelsea is interested in signing former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto'o, now at Anzhi, which may signal an end to attempts to buy Wayne Rooney from league champion Manchester United.
Chelsea has had two bids rejected for the unsettled forward and Mourinho has suggested it may make a third offer before the transfer window shuts on September 2. But Mourinho has told United it will harm the league if it refuses to sell Rooney to a domestic rival.
United manager David Moyes has repeatedly said that Rooney is "not for sale", but Mourinho believes the champion is wrong to be preoccupied about arming a rival for the title.
"That old-fashioned mentality of ‘I don't sell players to the same country' doesn't help the market and doesn't help the players," he said, in comments reported by several British newspapers yesterday.
"You see in Italy, it happens every season without any problem. The player wants to move from Milan to Inter, from Inter to Milan, from Roma to Juventus, from Juventus to Inter, and they do this all the time.
"From the big ones I think only (Francesco) Totti stayed all his life (at Roma). (Andrea) Pirlo — Inter, Milan, Juventus."
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