Page 3 - Chelsea

With the setup of the summer transfer window reportedly meant to be changing, where the business completed by the teams will have to be done before the new season starts, most clubs and managers will have to prepare themselves by creating a small list of targets before the current campaign is over.  

Sometimes, the best way to be effective within the market and be one step ahead of the other teams is by looking out for which individuals are close to being available on a free transfer. One of the huge factors to this, is that a potential club can negotiate and come to an agreement with a player that is in the final six months of his contract to go on to completing a move to his next destination on a summer Bosman move.

Here are the six European players that will become a free agent at the end of the season...

• Bundesliga – FC Schalke’s Max Meyer

Although the big sides in Europe tend to focus on bringing in central midfielders

The rivalry between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho will go down as one of the biggest that the Premier League has ever seen. The personalities of coaches, the excitement and hype ahead of the London Derby has made it a thriller of an event to watch.

However, the story itself has not been the same due to the sacking of Mourinho by Chelsea’s board back in December 2015. Since then, the 55-year-old Portuguese has had his own battles with managers such as Antonio Conte and Pep Guardiola, but despite these, he has not forgotten to make an occasional dig towards long-term rival Arsene Wenger.

Following last month’s swap deal, which saw Alexis Sanchez join Manchester United whilst Henrikh Mkhitaryan travelled in the opposite direction, to Arsenal, both players are now part of an elite list of players that have played for Wenger and Mourinho.

It’s time to go through the players that have relished the chance of working under both managers...

12th December 2017.
After years of English teams failing to perform in a competitive manner in the Champions League, this could be the first season of their return to past glory. The last team from the Premier League to win the elite European competition was Chelsea, in 2012, a long six years ago.

Since Chelsea's triumph in the Allianz Arena against Bayern Munich, only Manchester City have reached a semi final, which was staged against eventual winners Real Madrid. On paper, a 1-0 aggregate loss looks kind, but the truth of it is, is that Real Madrid dominated both legs and it was a non-event, at no point did the Citizens look genuinely threatening.

It has been disappointing to watch English teams fail so miserably in the Champions League, but there could be a changing of the guard, as there usually is in cycles. As the draw for the knockout rounds was made this week, England have five representatives to restore some honour and pride back into the division.

Four

23nd June 2017. By Edward Stratmann.
After an absolutely brilliant title winning season with Chelsea, Antonio Conte's shown his desperation to delve into the transfer market to improve his squad ahead of what looms as a hectic 2017/2018 campaign.

With the added pressure and challenges of the Champions League, the Italian, who's on the verge of signing a contract extension worth £9.5 million a year that will make him the seventh highest paid manager in the world, is reportedly keen to get his deals over the line as soon as possible. Indeed, this is entirely understandable, for he wants all his new additions present for preseason so they can learn his tactically advanced methodology.

Having acquired no new players yet, Conte's apparently voiced his dissatisfaction towards the Chelsea hierarchy in regards to their lack of progress on this front. The fact he

3rd May 2017. By Ryan Baldi.
With Cristiano Ronaldo ebbing slowly out of his prime, the rumours that Real Madrid have made Chelsea's Eden Hazard their top summer target could perhaps be construed as bad news for the four-time Ballon d'Or winner.

The 32-year-old Portuguese superstar, who is just nine months removed from leading his national side to success in the European Championships, is still able to boast an impressive return of 32 goals from 40 games this season. However, his current strike rate of 0.8 goals per game is lower than at any other point in his eight years with Los Blancos.

It goes without saying that, having bagged a hat-trick to see off Bayern Munich at the quarter-final stage, Ronaldo remains key to any hope Madrid have of becoming the first team to retain the European Cup in the Champions League era. But manager Zinédine Zindane would be wise to already be formulating a succession plan for his iconic No.7.

With that in mind, Madrid's

8th February 2017. By Ryan Baldi.
When Chelsea forked out £30 million to re-sign David Luiz from Paris Saint-Germain on transfer deadline day in August last year, many observers wrote the move off as the ultimate panic buy.

But with Chelsea top of the league and the Brazilian defender thriving at the heart of manager Antonio Conte's back three, few still hold that view. The wild-haired defender, once a figure of ridicule, is now being hailed as one of the very best centre-backs in the Premier League.

And Luiz's transformation from a defensive liability into a crucial cog for the runaway title race leaders is all thanks to Conte's tactical mastery.

At the beginning of the campaign the Chelsea boss was intent on setting up his side in a 4-2-4 shape similar to that which he employed at Siena and during his early days in charge of Juventus.

But deteriorating results soon proved that that particular

31st January 2017. By Danni Biggs. 
Carlos Tevez waves goodbye to his beloved Boca Juniors and says hello to mega-money with his new signing to Shanghai Shenhua. The Argentinian, former Manchester United striker has secured his deal that will make him the highest-paid player in the world.

Supporters were left pleading for Tevez to reconsider his move to Shanghai Shenhua by holding up signs that read "Don't Go, Carlos!" during his last game, where he was took off during the 90^th minute to receive a rapturous reception, giving an emotional wave goodbye to his beloved fans as he prepares for his next chapter in his journey.

Tevez at Boca Juniors

As some of you loyal fans are well aware of, Boca Juniors is where Carlos Tevez began his professional footballing career. Carlos made 110 appearances for Boca in the seasons 2001 to 2004, scoring a total of 38 goals. At the young age of 16, Tevez made his debut for Boca Juniors

23rd December 2016. By Edward Stratmann.
After steering Chelsea to their eleventh Premier League win in a row by defeating Crystal Palace 1-0, a victory that equaled the club's best ever streak, Antonio Conte was justifiably delighted with his team's achievement.

"The run is fantastic, and congratulations go to my players. They deserve this. I see them in training every single moment, every day, and their commitment and the way they prepare for the games and fight. I'm not a person who loves statistics but I'd be dishonest if I said I wasn't pleased with this run of 11 wins," he gleamed.

"In this league, if we'd arrived here today without the right concentration and focus, the will to fight and go into battle with our opponents, we'd have lost this game for sure. Instead, we have great quality but the players are putting that quality into the team."

Since adopting his 3-4-3 formation following defeat to Arsenal in September, which served as the catalyst for

9th December 2016. By Edward Stratmann.
It really is difficult to find a more consistent player in the Premier League than Cesar Azpilicueta. Over the past couple of seasons especially, whether at left-back, right-back or more recently centre-back, Chelsea's durable utility has hardly put in a subpar shift.

And this season has certainly been no different. Although he's a player whose dedicated, crucial work often goes unnoticed, there's no doubting what an integral component of Antonio Conte's high flying Chelsea he is. Even when the Blues battled with some turbulent results in the early stages of the season, Azpilicueta stood strong and kept up his relentlessly high level.

But ever since Conte switched to his 3-4-3 formation, following the 3-0 thrashing by Arsenal, Chelsea's form has been imperious, and the 27-year-old's been key in this. Deployed on the right side of Chelsea's three man backline, the versatile defender has been nothing short of exceptional here