Chelsea have beaten Barcelona to
the signature of Argentinean centre-back Nicolas Otamendi after
agreeing a deal with Porto, according to the Express.
Otamendi moved to Porto in a £3.5million
deal from Vélez Sársfield in 2010 and has established himself as a
first team regular at the Estádio do Dragão ever since. The Express
claims that both Chelsea and Barcelona held talks with the Portuguese
champions over the summer about signing Otamendi but were unable to
agree terms.
It seems the duo have refused to give up
and the newspaper suggests that Porto are now resigned to losing the
25-year-old defender, and expect him to move to Stamford Bridge next
summer after a deal was agreed with the Blues.
The report doesn’t provide any details
on the fee that has supposedly been agreed but it claims that Chelsea
were able to strike the deal following a personal plea from former Porto
boss and current Chelsea supremo, Jose Mourinho.
Otamendi is a powerful centre-back who’s
been capped 15 times by Argentina and he’d provide Mourinho with
another option at the back if he does end up moving to west London next
summer. Captain John Terry
is in the final year of his contract and at 33-years-old, a long-term
replacement is going to be needed some time soon and Otamendi could be
just the man for the job.
However, it’s worth remembering that
this is still just paper talk and until something official comes out
from Chelsea or Porto, you should take it with a pinch of salt.
No comments:
Post a Comment