For last couple of days rumours in the media are suggesting that Chelsea central defender Alex might be sold to Bayern Munich or Real Madrid for a fee in the region of £12 million. I bet none of the Chelsea supporters would like to see him leaving the Bridge after giving such a consistent level of performances over the last few years and establishing himself as one of the quality CBs in the Premier League.
Then why is it that Chelsea want to sell him? While answering that, a couple of reasons come to my mind. Not many will agree with it or people might have different opinions than me but here are the things which come to my mind.
Injuries – I am not saying he is on a stretcher all the time but for the last couple of seasons he has been hammered by injuries and has spent at least a month on sidelines, something which can’t be overlooked in the competitive nature of the Premier League where one player’s injury might be the difference between winning and losing, and losing a central defender at important stages can be a disaster for a club like Chelsea who compete on all fronts.
Ivanovic More Suitable Option – Apart from Alex, we have John Terry, David Luiz and Branislav Ivanovic who can play at the heart of defense. Though Luiz is still getting to the grips with playing in league, he isn’t far away from being the prime figure at the back line (or is he already?). John Terry, I really doubt he will be benched until he retires. So we definitely have John Terry there in the defense, one who can partner him is either Alex, Luiz or Ivanovic. In this situation Ivanovic has better dynamism than Alex as he can play at right back as well. So whether we sign a right back or center back, it doesn’t really affect Ivanovic’s chances as he can settle at any of above mentioned roles. But in the case of Alex, he can only play at center back, which will somewhat limit his chances.
Reducing the number of foreign players – we already have 17 foreign players, and no club can have more than 17 foreign players in their 25 men squad sheet. So because of this we will see some players leaving the team to open up the slots for potential new signings. In that case, Alex may be a casualty and might be sold.
Upcoming 9 – 9 rule – FIFA is thinking of implementing a new rule which says that in every match day squad of 18 players, 9 must be homegrown and other 9 will be allowed as foreign players. This rule is still on papers but is more likely to be implemented in the near future and many are suggesting that is the reason why ridiculous sums of money have been spent on Phil Jones and Henderson by our rival clubs in this transfer window. Could this be the reason then we might see few other players leaving the club as well?
Andre Villas-Boas has something different in mind – In this case, no other person will be able to justify Alex’s departure but our new manager, so I will leave this point as it is!
If any of these is the reason, yet none of it will be able to ease the pain of departure of crowd-favorite Alex. I really hope he doesn’t leave for any other club, but in case he does leave, I hope he will have bright future at his new club.
Submitted by Chelsea Fanatic
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