Abramovich, Kenyon, Calderon and Del Nido take up the principal seats whilst Mourinho and Real Madrid´s Schuster hover behind them, having previously made their humble requests for the respective prizes.  There are some older, now vacated seats that were once briefly occupied by Parry and Gil and the anxious footprints behind them of Ferguson and Benitez can still be seen in the plush carpet. 

I don’t feel that I need to introduce the most of the players although a brief word on Calderon and Del Nido:

Calderon is the current President of Real Madrid and relies heavily on the favour of the board and the clubs fans if he is to maintain his lofty position.  To help him achieve this he feels he has to continue a version of the “galatico” signing policy heavily used by previous President, Fiorentino Perez. 

Robben was one of the Calderón electoral promises made and the list also includes Fábregas and Kaka (Fábregas next year and Kaka in 2009 - "There's a chance that they will all be here by the end of my third year in office.").

Calderón failed to sign any of them last summer and so has to produce a few aces this time around – after all, he squeezed past another candidate during the last elections who had promised the baying Madrid masses Cristiano Ronaldo!

José Maria Del Nido is your typical Spanish macho man - famous for driving a hard bargain and even more famous for bragging about it.  He’s done well though.  Two summers ago he made a €55m profit on the sales of Sergio Ramos and Julio Baptista whilst rejecting a £16m offer from Liverpool for Alves.  

Kenyon and Abramovich´s main objective at the table is to secure the services of Alves off Del Nido whilst keeping Robben in the squad – or at least getting top dollar for him if the Dutchman insists on leaping out the pack into the hands of Calderon. 

Getting Robben in the first place was controversial enough.  His signing occurred during the process of prising Kenyon away from Man Utd. Man Utd fans long claimed that Robben was destined for Old Trafford – indeed, Robben´s agent, his father, Hans said at the time:

"My son will not go to Chelsea. Over my dead body will he go there. They have an owner who has no philosophy or structure at the club. Chelsea just buy expensive players all over Europe and think it will make them a great team.

"Old Trafford is the only place he wants to play and if he can't play there he would rather stay at PSV. In fact he would rather play in their reserves than go to Chelsea. It's as simple as that" - January 25 2004. 

As it turned out, Man Utd cocked up the Robben signing themselves by apparently offering less than an original offer they made previously (they thought they had the player in the bag).  PSV were irked to say the least but Chelsea stepped in and offered 12M quid anyway!   So there!

Robben set the Premier alight in his first season.  Lightening quick with the ball seemingly glued to his feet – defenders just couldn’t cope with him.  Here we were with a player who could change a game in a heartbeat – truly world class. 

The following season he started to pick up injuries.  Defenders were getting very "annoyed" but soon discovered that Robben “doesn’t like it up im!”  (Who does?!!!).  Like an unlucky thoroughbred racehorse, he came back from injury only to get injured soon again. 

This frustrating process continued seemingly eternally in subsequent seasons - trouble was though, despite his regular absences, in most Chelsea supporters eyes and hearts he was just too good to sell! 

"I can imagine people seeing me playing well one week and then out again, people thinking 'he's always injured and I can assure them the most frustrated person with all this is me.”

"I always work hard to come back as quickly as possible. I always get good support when I do, so that continually keeps me going."

"The fans have been good for me so I want to give them something back. They must be tired of this as well. I need to get a lot of games under my belt, play consecutively a lot of matches. I can do a lot of things for the team."  

So what about this Alves bloke then?  Well, I’m sure the reader has a reasonable idea about this “right-back” from Sevilla, but here’s a few observations anyway: 

Joined Sevilla for €1m in 2003.  He’s 23 years old and last year described, at one time, by writer Sid Lowe, as the best player in Spain. Don Balón have him in the top 20 players in Spain, ahead of David Villa and every Real Madrid player – don’t forget, we’re talking about a right-back here. 

He has played at right-back, right-midfield, left-back, left-midfield, up front (!) and central midfield.  He has topped the assists league but he can defend excellently (just as well then eh!). 

One of the examples of his exploits is last season’s match against Barcelona.  He was involved in Sevilla's equaliser, scored a free-kick which put Sevilla ahead and then almost scored the 3^rd in 93rd minute when his shot thumped the crossbar after a brilliant individual run. 

Sevilla fans love his personality (he likes to play pranks - and has supersticions with his haircuts!) as well as his play.  On the bad side, he apparently likes a dive and has been described as Rooney-esque, temperament wise, picking up a lot of yellow cards on the way.

MEDIA REPORTS CHRONICLE

9^th June 2007

Robben reported to be on the verge of signing a new 5 year deal with Chelsea despite Calderon’s earlier boastings, denied by Hans Robben, agent for his son:  

“I never met him or anyone from Madrid and did not speak to them. We are nearly finished negotiating with Chelsea.  Arjen will stay another five years with the club"

Spanish football newspapaer and virtual Real Madrid media arm, "MARCA", insists that Abramovich has told Kenyon if we want Alves we must sell Robben to raise the funds.  They also report that Del Nido has revealed no offer has been made for Alves but in any case he would want around 30M euros for the player. 

30th July 2007

Real Madrid manager Schuster is reported to be after both Robben and Drenthe: 

"I would be a lot more relaxed if they were here. Getting Robben here is very important for us.  Having Robben would allow Robinho and Gonzalo Higuaín to be on the right.  I want a lot of mobility there, similar to what Zinedine Zidane had. I am sure that we haven't closed our squad yet."  

Schuster also comments on Reyes: "We had options to keep him here and I would be surprised to see him go. I thought he would stay because he was happy.” 

4^th August 2007

Real Madrid have offered Chelsea a combined bid of up £28 million for Ballack and Robben. 

7^th August 2007

Real supposedly contact Chelsea and claim that Ballack wants to join them.  Schuster is quoted saying that he fits "perfectly well" into his plans. 

Ballack has a contract until 2010 and issues a statement on the official Chelsea website the previous evening: 

"I have no interest in leaving Chelsea and I have had no contact with Real Madrid whatsoever.  I am totally committed to Chelsea. I came here to win trophies. I am very happy in London professionally and for my family. The speculation about me leaving is not true." 

Chelsea raise the transfer fee they want from Real Madrid for Robben to €40 million (£27m).  

8^th August 2007

Talks between Chelsea and Hans Robben to improve his £83,000-a-week contract, which still has 2 years to run, have “broken down irreparably”.   

Real Madrid have offered £22.5 million for Robben - still short of Chelsea's demands.  Hans Robben is now quoted with the following: 

"Everything shall be resolved – even as early as today.  We hope the agreement between Real Madrid and Chelsea can be closed."  

Robben breaks silence on the Real Madrid’s reported interest: 

“Of course Madrid’s interest makes me happy.  But for now I can not say much more because Chelsea will not let me tell you more until there is an agreement between the two clubs.  It’s better that they talk about it and solve this.”   

“I know some people are waiting for me. I would like to send a message to the Madrid fans but I can’t until my future is sorted.  If it gets sorted, I’ll be glad to send the people a message.” 

Further reports state that the required figure to sign Robben is £25m. 

Alves apparently “pleads” with Sevilla to let him join Chelsea with the possible move quoted at £20 million. 

"My agent has been in England for some time handling the offer made by Chelsea and that is really what interests me.  This is a wonderful chance for my career and I want to take advantage of it.”  

9^th August 2007

Reports everywhere that Real Madrid have completed the signing of Robben for of £22.5 million, due to a Spanish radio report the previous evening (note that some Spanish radio stations are, again, just media arms of Real Madrid). 

Spanish station Cadena SER say that Robben would be presented as a Real player later today along with Feyenoord defender Drenthe, signed for £8.8 million. 

11^th August 2007

A £20m deal has been discussed between Chelsea and Sevilla for Alves. Reports now say that the Real / Robben deal has collapsed and that the Madrid club will now turn to sign Dutchman, Wesley Sneijder. 

Real's sporting director Pedrag Mijatovic has travelled to Amsterdam to negotiate a £18.2m deal for the midfielder after frustration at negotiations with Chelsea. 

Real Madrid accuse Chelsea of reneging on an agreed transfer fee for Robben of £13.5m.   Other reports also say that Real Madrid felt the figure would be accepted as they know that Robben wants to leave – Chelsea want substantially more. 

Mourinho: 

"I cannot speak about it. Until the 31 August everything is possible in terms of people to come and people to go. I think the situation has a lot of speculation behind but of course also some truth. And we have to wait a bit more to see." 

"We want to make our squad even better.  Right-back is a position where we feel we can improve, but to improve is not easy. You need a good player, and Alves is a good player. We will make an offer, a balanced offer not a stupid one, and if they accept, good. We will try to get the player. If they don't accept it, they don't accept it."   

Real Madrid sign the 23-year-old Ajax midfielder Wesley Sneijder for £18.3m. Sneijder will be unveiled later with Drenthe, who completed a reported £9.5m move from Feyenoord on the Monday.   Real may still pursue their interest in Robben as Sneijder is more of a midfield playmaker like Ballack.

13^th August 2007

Ajax say they have received an apology from Real Madrid for their behaviour during negotiations for Sneijder. 

Madrid had offered 24 million euros the previous Thursday with Madrid's technical director Pedrag Mijatovic then giving Ajax a three-hour ultimatum to accept the deal.  Ajax wouldn´t be held to ransom.   

Technical director Martin Van Geel: 

"It was intolerable. When we said we wouldn't talk unless it was carried out in a polite manner they got up and left.  Then, on Saturday night I received a message that they would like to reopen the negotiations.  The club apologised for their behaviour and on Sunday both clubs agreed a transfer fee of 27 million euros." 

Spanish media report that Abramovich doesn’t want to pay 36 million euros for Alves and that Calderón only wants to pay 25 million euros for Robben. 

Jose Mourinho has reiterated that Arjen Robben remains in his plans and that he will select Robben when he returns from his recent knee injury.  

"Robben is still injured.  He still has a little problem from the previous surgery, but when he is back and training with the group he is a Chelsea player. I'm always honest. I always pick the players that are in the best form. When Arjen arrives into that level he is a great player and a great choice for me." 

14th August 2007

Alves is left out of Sevilla's squad for the Champions League third qualifying round first-leg tie against AEK Athens.  

15^th August 2007

Alves will become a Chelsea player today.  He has already agreed terms and will sign for €30m (£21.5m).  

Chelsea representatives met with Sevilla's director-general José María Cruz at the TRYP Gran Fenix hotel in Madrid the previous evening.  Cruz's only gets involved in major transfers when a deal has been agreed, the paperwork needs to be drawn up and only after negotiations undertaken by the club president, Del Nido. 

The Sevilla president has been unable to raise the bidding war he wanted after quoting a figure of €40m to Madrid at the weekend and Alves insisted he only wanted to join Chelsea.  Del Nido had boasted publicly that he had rejected two €30m-plus offers at the weekend for Alves.   

Sevilla coach, Juande Ramos comments on Alves´s absence from their CL qualifier: 

"Dani told me he was not in the right frame of mind to play - I cannot handcuff someone and force them to come to work."

16^th August 2007

Sevilla “dismiss” a bid from Chelsea for Alves:  "Sevilla feel the offer made by Chelsea to acquire Alves to be way below the level we would expect.  This being the case, Daniel remains a player of Sevilla FC."  

Mourinho, after the win at Reading: 

"We are trying to buy him but the situation is not done at this moment. We will see what happens."  

However, Alves's agent Geronimo Suarez is "80-90% confident” the deal will go through: 

"He is determined to go to Chelsea.  He has spoken in these terms a lot of times, he has said to the press here in Seville that he is 100% determined to go Chelsea. He asked for the Seville club to close the agreement with Chelsea as soon as possible. These are his own words." 

Real Madrid have also now again been linked with Alves but Suarez reiterates Alves' declaration on BBC Five Live that it is Chelsea he wishes to join. 

"He is determined to go there.  He asked for the Seville club to close the agreement with Chelsea as soon as possible.  We cannot continue in this way for a long time because the player is suffering a lot here.” 

Chelsea release a statement: 

"Contrary to reports from Spain, Chelsea Football Club has not reached an agreement for the transfer of Daniel Alves from Seville.  Chelsea FC has confirmed its interest in the player to the club but as yet there is no agreement." 

17^th August 2007

Reports now say that Abramovich has played “hard ball” after Kenyon’s meeting with Sevilla's director-general Jose Maria Cruz at the Gran Fenix hotel in Madrid.  

A £23m was agreed and with the bulk of the money to be paid up front but then Abramovich told Kenyon this wasn’t acceptable and the deal was off!  Kenyon must re-negotiate!  (What a load of old rollocks!). 

20^th August 2007

Sevilla full-back Daniel Alves reveals he is still not to join Chelsea but remains "hopeful for some closure on this subject."   Chelsea were expected to increase their offer last week after an initial bid of £21.5million was rejected.  

After last night's Spanish Super Cup win over Real Madrid, the Sevilla website publishes the following: 

"I am still not any closer to confirming my future. I am not suffering as a result of this confusion and whilst I am with Sevilla I will act professionally, however I am hopeful for some closure on this subject.”  

21^st August 2007

Re Real Madrid’s interest, Alves speaks: 

"Any player would be enthusiastic about playing for Real Madrid. Any player who would deny wanting to play for Madrid would be a liar. I am no different, but it's not a decision that I have to take." 

Robben could still become a Real Madrid player according to his father Hans.

“It is possible that Arjen becomes a Real Madrid player, but the situation at the moment is that we do not know if he will remain at Chelsea or play in Madrid.”  

"The period to sign him finishes in ten days and I hope that Madrid comes in to buy my son, but I cannot be sure. My son is ready to play right away because he is totally recovered.”  

Chelsea are reported to be still hopeful of signing Alves despite the supposed reported interest from Real Madrid.  Reports allege we have increased the initial £21.5 million offer by another £3 million (36M euros).   

Alves is on duty for Brazil to face Algeria in a friendly in France tomorrow.  

23^rd August 2007

Sevilla have turned down two new bids for Alves according to Del Nido although he does not identify the clubs in question: 

"We have rejected in the last few hours two new offers which do not meet our requirements." 

23^rd August 2007 (evening) 

Chelsea agree deal for right-back, Belletti for £3.7 million with Barcelona! Belletti is to pass a medical and agree personal terms at Stamford Bridge immediately.    

“It has all been a great surprise.  Just yesterday I talked with Chelsea. We reached an agreement and so did Chelsea and Barcelona with no problem.” 

“I am a typical Brazilian full-back - I like to get forward up the wing.” 

The move, according to reports, ends our interest in Alves and comes less than 24 hours after Chelsea reach agreement with Real Madrid to sell Robben. 

Bruce Buck on the Robben deal: 

“Value is not the right word; we had a very good business result there.  We pretty much doubled our money in terms of the transfer fee we paid three years ago.”  

“It goes both ways in terms of not being held ransom, in respect to players we might be selling and not being held ransom in respect to players we might be buying.  In all those situations we are looking to get the price we think is appropriate, either buying a player or selling a player.”  

“In the first year we spent quite a bit of money because we felt we had catch-up to do. Always, the plan was for the amount we spent on aggregate for transfers each window, to go down every time. It has.  It just makes sense for the club - we’re looking to bring more players through the academy, which takes time to implement. .Over time I think we’ll have a better strategy towards spending money during transfer windows.”  

"We wanted him (Robben) to stay and think he is a very good player who has made a very good contribution. Only he can answer why he wanted to leave. We weren't going to let him leave unless there was an appropriate business resolution." Madrid drop interest in Alves after signing Heinze. 

24^th August 2007  

Real Madrid confirm signing of Robben for £24.5m.  Madrid have now signed Christoph Metzelder, Pepe, Jerzy Dudek, Royston Drenthe and Javier Saviola.  

The arrival of Belletti is reported to signal the departure of Ferreira, Diarra or Johnson. Buck reiterates Chelsea’s resolve not to be ripped off in the transfer market: 

“If the transfer fee is higher than we think it should be then we will not go after that player. Over the last few years it's happened numerous times. In the transfer market there's one price for Chelsea Football Club and one price for everyone else. We have to fight against that. It's not easy but we're making headway." 

Mourinho is reported to be ready to “trim” the squad and cite Arsenal’s interest in Diarra and announces the squad will not be increased: 

"The market is open until August 31st but not for us. We have the new signings we fought for and we have the balance in the squad. But I want my squad to be just a little bit smaller. We have 27 players because Belletti comes in but Arjen Robben goes out, and if we can, we will go down to 26.” 

"Belletti brings what we believe we need, a pure right-back, not an adaptation any more like we did so many times with Diarra, Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips in that position.  

"Was he the first option or the second option? For me the point is always the same, the best player is always the best relation between quality and price.  Belletti is a very good player and the relation between his quality and the price makes him the best."

Chelsea are reported to have made a net profit of 10M quid so far in this summer’s transfer market. 

25^th August 2007

Alves is livid! He has a god old rant (and contradicts himself a bit towards the end of the following interview) in AS (Spanish football rag): 

“I can only repeat what I’ve said before that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I want to leave.  I don’t want to let this opportunity pass by.  It’s true that I’m disappointed in the way that I’ve been treated.  I’ve broken my back for this club over the last 4 ½ years and I expected more respect given what I have done for this club.  It’s clear that the club don’t feel the same.” 

“The club and I had already met and agreed that if an offer arrived I could leave.  It’s not for me to put my own price tag but I reckon 36M euros is quite acceptable for a right-back but the club have refused that offer.” 

“They promised me that if a decent offer arrived it would be accepted and I would be able to leave and this is why I feel cheated – the offer arrived but was not accepted!  I can only tell you that on Monday, Sevilla had an offer of 36M euros on the table and again they refused it!  It doesn’t matter what team the offer came from – but I’m telling you the offer arrived!” 

“The only thing I’m disappointed about is that I expected more from the club although I’m not going to generalise because the employees of the club have nothing to do with this.  The only people that this has to do with is the President and I and I feel very disappointed.  I’ve given everything!  We’ve won 6 cups in less than 1 ½ years and this should be taken into consideration.  I’m talking about an offer of 36M euros!  OK. I’m not the one to put on my own price tag but it’s a very good offer!” 

“While the transfer market is open it’s still possible to sign – that’s my hope and I believe the opportunity is still alive.  If it doesn’t happen THEN I will speak again on the matter.  When the market closes I’ll tell you what I think and what I will do!  Until the August 31st I cannot say anything else but what I can say is that I will play as best as I can If I have to stay at Sevilla but I won’t be happy – I won’t be happy at Sevilla because of what has happened and missing the opportunity of a lifetime.” 

“How will I behave? Well, of course I have things in mind but I’m not going to say what it is at the moment.  I feel as if I’ve been in a fight whilst having given the gun to the other person.  If I do anything I’m not going to say what it is now.  I feel disappointed the offer of 36m euros was accepted at first and then later it was turned down. I thought that it would be accepted on Monday, but it wasn't."  

“I haven’t spoken to the manager but I’m happy that he understands the situation.  I’ve been carrying a knock since the match against Madrid – It’s not a good idea to force the injury anymore by playing at the moment.”

END OF CHRONICLE  

Losing Robben is quite sad.  I have a feeling of not having got or seen the best of him and perhaps we should have done more to hold on to him.  Seeing him in a Real Madrid shirt produces a hollow, empty feeling in my stomach. 

Some stats:  Win % with Robben was 76%. Without him, 47%

Robben has scored 19 goals in 104 appearances over three seasons for us although he probably averages the equivalent of 20 odd games a season only.  

Still, IF it turns out that he IS injury prone at Real Madrid, then we have done some excellent business – if he’s regularly fit we’ll just have to hope that he doesn’t come back to haunt us. 

The only player I’d like to see come in as a direct Robben replacement is Quaresema (but we do need a right-back as well - don´t want much do I?!) although one of the upsides to Robben´s departure is that Scott Sinclair now has an increased opportunity to develop at Chelsea. 

Sinclair is very much Robben-esque and still so young.  He’s in the full squad this season and I’ve no doubt that he’s going to be a very exciting player. 

Now!  Back to this poker game: Isn’t it possible that the game isn’t over?

Del Nido has always given it large that he gets top dollar and more for his players. He seems your typical, Latin macho type who would love to show the world and his mates what a big player he is and how he got one over on “Abramovich”.

Wouldn’t surprise me if Abramovich/Kenyon have had a gutful of him and getting good money for Robben and then buying cut-price Belletti is a massive V-sign to Del Nido.

What does Del Nido do now?  He’s got one angry player on his hands in Alves - fuming to say the least!  He’s not going to get the money he’s been asking for Alves from anyone else (for the moment).

The 2/3M for Belletti doesn’t hurt us and the transfer window still has a week to go.  

Have Hicks and Gillette an ace card to slip to Benitez to throw down on the table?  Nah!  They’ve used all their aces for this summer haven’t they?  Real Madrid have definitely no cards left to play.

I’ll put my head on the block and say that we will STILL get Alves - and for the amount we last bid – if not before the 31^st, definitely in January.   

Come on Chels!  Rake up those chips! 

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