Tottenham and Chelsea lead the way as transfer window nears its end

Chelsea

Samuel Eto’o is the man for Chelsea

With the Rooney saga coming to an end following the 48 hour ultimatum of Jose Mourinho after the match at Old Trafford on Monday, Chelsea were left to seek options elsewhere. Samuel Eto’o was kept on hold for almost a week, in case anything positive developed in the Rooney front.

Once, that was cleared, Eto’o became the next option. The decorated Cameroon international arrived in London yesterday and will be announced as a Chelsea player later today. He is reportedly moving on a free transfer and is taking a massive wage cut from his record breaking £350,000-a-week at Anzhi to £115,000-a-week at Chelsea on a one-year-contract with an option to extend it further by a year.

Samuel Eto’o will be the final signing of Chelsea this summer, with the last piece of the puzzle falling into place. This transfer though, will force Chelsea to offload one of its non-homegrown players, most possibly Demba Ba, on a temporary basis, in order to comply with the league registration rules.

Eto’o, a four time African Player of the Year, is a natural goalscorer, and brings in vast amount of experience, something Chelsea has been lacking after the departure of Drogba. The Cameroonian’s ability to find the net on regular basis will boost the lackluster striking department of Chelsea. His goal record is matched only by a select few and top flight clubs will have a tough time containing Eto’o.

Another Chelsea acquisition, which we already talked about, was Willian Borges da Silva. The agile and pacy Brazilian winger is all what Chelsea don’t need at the moment. With that particular department overflowing with talented players, Willian’s addition was completely unnecessary.

But hey, when you have egotistic owners, such things are bound to happen. On the plus side, Willian will make the currently strong Chelsea team, a much more complete outfit, giving the manager a lot of selection headaches. Willian has shown what he could do on the pitch during his time at Shakhtar Donetsk.

In him, Chelsea has gained another defense unlocker and a clinical finisher, probably better than Hazard and Mata. Time can only tell. He also brings in reasonable amount of physicality, making him an ideal winger by EPL standards.