I Love Chelsea

Chelsea is likely to place Kurt Zouma, the French defender, on loan again this summer.

The Blues management is looking to sign a couple of other defenders and if they are able to make those signings, Zouma would be loaned out.

Chelsea had signed Zouma, a 19-year old centre-back, during the last mid-season transfer window. They were rumoured to have paid about 12 million Pounds for him, but, they had left him at his former club St. Etienne only for the remaining part of the 2013-14 Season.

Zouma was supposed to join the Chelsea squad for the 2014-15 Season though, considering the fact that the Blues lost one of their key defenders in the form of David Luiz. But, it doesn’t seem to be going to happen.

Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea boss, has set his eyes on a couple of other France internationals i.e. Eliaquim Mangala and Raphael Varane.

Mourinho wants Zouma to gain more experience before he gets him to play in the Premier League. The youngster has immense talent and the Blues manager knows that, but, since he is raw at this point of time, he wants him to spend some time on loan at other clubs.

Varane who is a Real Madrid player at the moment is believed to have great tuning with Mourinho and he has already hinted a couple of times in the media that he would not mind signing for Chelsea.

As far as Mangala is concerned, Mourinho will have to work hard to have his services. First of all, the transfer fee that his current club Porto is demanding for him is quite high and secondly, apart from Chelsea, the two Manchester based cubs i.e. United and City are also after the player.

Meanwhile, the clubs which are reported to have approached Chelsea for the Zouma loan deal are the English club Sunderland and the Italian club Internazionale.

Soon-to-be Chelsea signing Diego Costa has revealed for the first time that he would be playing for the blues next season. It has been revealed a few weeks ago that Chelsea have agreed a £ 32 million fee with Atletico Madrid. This is the release clause in the contract of the striker, who has been an influential figure for the Spanish outfit last season. The 25-year-old has had an outstanding season in which he scored almost 40 goals in all competitions. This helped Atletico in the first league title since 1994, while they also reached the Champions League final as well.

Costa has been on the Chelsea radar for several weeks. He confirmed in a radio interview that he will be playing for the blues next season. Until then, he’ll be taking part with the Spanish national team in the World Cup 2014. He is expected to be heavily booed by the Brazilian supporters after electing to play for the Spanish national team rather than Brazil. Despite being born and having played most of his football in Brazil, Costa failure to break into the Brazilian national team forced him to pick Spain.

Costa is also a major injury doubt for the World Cup after missing the final few weeks of the league campaign with a hamstring problem.

“Well, it could be. During the Confederations Cup they were against us. We’re considered rivals to Brazil, so it’s a normal reaction. There will be moments when our rivalry will mean we aren’t exactly loved in Brazil, but in general, I don’t think it will be any worse because he is playing for us. He decided to take up citizenship and play for us. He achieved a lot with his club this season with his goals, his fight and enthusiasm. A player with these characteristics isn’t exactly a bad thing for us,” said Costa.

José Mourinho has claimed that he is not sure why Norwich were extremely defensive against his Chelsea team during the weekend. Chelsea hit the woodwork twice in the match, while also having a strong penalty claim turned down by the referee. For most of the 90 minutes, Norwich did not show any attacking intent as they were quite happy to sit in their own defence area of the pitch. However, Mourinho is baffled by the tactics of Norwich, who are struggling against relegation. Norwich needed three points from this match in order to have any chance of survival.

Chelsea also needed three points in order to stay in touch with the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City at the top of the table. Liverpool do not play until Monday night when they take on Crystal Palace away from home, but the race of the Premier league could effectively over – as far as Chelsea are concerned – following this disappointing draw. This was also the final home match of the season. The failure to get the victory means that Chelsea have not won at Stamford Bridge in the last three matches. This run includes two defeat against Sunderland and Atletico Madrid.

The result, however, confirmed Chelsea’s position in the Champions League group stages next season.

“We had one team that needed three points to have a chance to survive, and they didn’t play to win. You had a team that needs one point to finish third, and in the Champions League group phase, and that team played like the one needing three points so it was a bit of a contradiction. (Their gameplan) surprised me but anyone plays like they want. It’s not my responsibility, it is their responsibility. I think we lost 45 minutes because in the first half we were very slow,” said Mourinho.