For our Chelsea supporters here in the Football Transfer Tavern, the international break came at exactly the right time with many of our Blues fanatics simply sick to the stomach regarding the shock form of their heroes.
Falling from grace dramatically so far this season, Blues fans will be pleased that on Saturday, it is Aston Villa that travel to Stamford Bridge with Chelsea desperately in search of three points to haul themselves back up the Premier League table from a lowly 16th place at present.
Anything less than three points against Tim Sherwood’s subdued Villains will spark the latest batch of crisis talk at Stamford Bridge and in recent days, we’ve seen the tabloids link Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone with the Blues hotseat.
At the start of the season, you couldn’t have even imagined a scenario which would suggest Jose Mourinho’s job would be on the lime but increasingly by the week it seems, football fans are now questioning what if?
An incredibly expectant club, everybody, let alone Chelsea supporters expected the Blues to go on and potentially dominate English football given the canter at which they won the league in such convincing fashion last term but if there are some problems going on behind the scenes, these seem to be transmitting to the pitch on far too regular a basis this term.
As we know, new signings usually appease a club’s supporters in the short-term and one man who is being linked with a Chelsea switch of late is FC Porto’s Ruben Neves who played against the Blues in the Portuguese sides’ victory on gameweek two.
A defensive midfielder who could eventually succeed John Obi Mikel in West London, new Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has today been linked with a swoop for the Portugal Under-21 international as well.
With English clubs clamouring for his signature, we’ve devised a list of five players who could well be following Ruben Neves to Chelsea in the January transfer window.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five players who could follow Ruben Neves to Chelsea in January.
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Marquinhos
If you ask any Chelsea fan where they think the club most need strengthening right now, they’ll tell you that it’s the defence that is need of a reshape.
With John Terry not getting any younger and Kurt Zouma still a work in progress, we’ve seen Chelsea strangely look vulnerable for most of the season so far and you haven’t said this about a Jose Mourinho team in a long time.
With Branislav Ivanovic and Cesar Azpilicueta both not up to their usual high standards either, transfer targets who can play at both centre back and at full back will naturally be sought-after by the Blues right now.
One man who is equally adept in either role is Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian international Marquinhos who has only started four Ligue 1 games for Laurent Blanc’s French champions this season.
Usually playing second fiddle behind international compatriots David Luiz and Thiago Silva, Marquinhos has stated how he wants to make it work in Paris before but if he remains on the bench up until January, perhaps he could be swayed.
We mustn’t forget also, Chelsea sanctioned a bid for him on deadline day too before completing the panic purchase of Papy Djilobodji so make no mistake, he’ll be somebody who is in their sights again come the New Year.
Yacine Brahimi
A team-mate of Ruben Neves and somebody that also helpled plot the downfall of Chelsea in the Champions League for FC Porto on gameweek two, Yacine Brahimi is most definitely the Portuguese giants’ key man following Jackson Martinez’s departure.
An absolute revelation since arriving at Estadio do Dragao from Granada in 2014, Brahimi doesn’t boast the best goals ratio having struck only seven in 34 appearances for the Dragons so far but what he does boast is extreme pace and flair down the flanks.
It must be said that Chelsea signed Pedro as somebody who could do this in the summer but more fuel was added to the fire back at the start of the month when Metro claimed that Jose Mourinho personally recommends a potential transfer for the Algerian international.
Watch this space?
Dani Carvajal
Having gone from being one of the darlings of Stamford Bridge to public enemy number one this season regarding his series of high-profile errors, Branislav Ivanovic is a man devoid of confidence right now.
In truth, a lot of the goals Chelsea have conceded this term have been a result of Ivanovic being at fault and thus many fans have been calling for Cesar Azpilicueta to be reinstalled at right back with new man Baba Rahman taking the left back berth.
Jose Mourinho is yet to test that theory out in the Premier League while sticking with the Serbian international but if this bad form continues, perhaps Chelsea will be looking for a new right back altogether?
One right back linked with a Chelsea swoop back in September was Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal who of course battles for the full back berth with new signing Danilo and Alvaro Arbeloa in the Spanish capital.
Carvajal would not be cheap having signed a new deal at the Bernabeu last season and we think this transfer would be incredibly difficult to pull off given his rapid rise to prominence but he’s on the Blues’ radar nonetheless.
John Stones
If you were sick of hearing about this potential transfer in the summer, brace yourselves because the John Stones to Chelsea bandwagon is about to start up again for January.
While the Blues met an absolute 100 per cent show of defiance on the part of Everton in the summer, The Mirror referenced that Jose Mourinho’s side will lodge a £36 million bid to the Toffees in January for the England international.
For a few of our punters by the bar, if Stones was unavailable in the summer, he’ll certainly be unavailable in January where Everton will be reassessing their ultimate goals for the season but you never know; stranger things have happened in football.
Moussa Konate
If you had said to Chelsea supporters that they might need to invest in another striker at the start of the season, they might’ve laughed given they already boasted the capable Diego Costa and Loic Remy, not to mention giving another chance to Radamel Falcao to fire.
But in the midst of the season so far, Costa has been surrounded by controversy with a lower goal haul than last season, Remy hasn’t had enough first team chances to find his best form and Falcao has been well, Falcao!
With Charlie Austin committing himself to QPR for the forseeable future, Chelsea striking targets are a bit thin on the ground right now but one man who was linked with a Blues switch back in September was FC Sion’s Moussa Konate who is a lesser-known Senegalese international.
Boasting a fantastic goal return of 21 goals in 38 league appearances in his Sion career so far, albeit in the inferior Swiss top flight, perhaps he’s an option Jose Mourinho will assess come January.
