Chelsea to go on January spending spree - but is it a good time to buy?

Reports in this morning’s papers – most notably on the back page of the Times – suggest that Chelsea are pushing the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to suspend FIFA’s transfer ban while its appeal is being considered, freeing the club up to make purchases in January.

The Times’ report suggests that Chelsea are already drawing up a list of targets which includes David Villa, Daniele De Rossi, Middlesbrough’s Adam Johnson and, most worryingly, Emile Heskey. Surely not the latter?

Rumour has it that Ancelotti is concerned at the depth of the squad. Perhaps if he were ready to play some of the current second string – the likes of Joe Cole, Zhirkov, Sturridge etc for longer than ten minutes a month – he might gain a different understanding.

It’s all speculation at this point however as we know nothing of CAS’ intentions regarding a potential suspension of the transfer ban, or the appeal itself, although noises in newspapers suggest that Chelsea are at relatively confident that the ban will be at least reduced. But on the off chance that the full ban is upheld, January might prove the only chance the club has to renew the squad until 2011.

From that perspective, planning for January deals is probably a sensible move for the club. Generally speaking however, the January transfer window is far from an ideal time to be making purchases.

Typically players of the highest calibre are not realistic targets in January, mainly because ineligibility for the Champions League makes them a less appealing prospect. In addition, teams are often even more reluctant to sell their best players mid-season, leading to inflated prices. If David Villa (who incidentally has had a great season so far with Valencia) would have cost £25m in July, you can bet he’d cost closer to £40m on 1^st January.

Good deals have been made in the January transfer window – £15m for Anelka wasn’t too outrageous, for example. But let’s not get too excited. We’ve heard nothing from CAS yet and I find it hard to believe that there’s plenty of money in the Chelsea coffers now when the club adopted such a thrifty approach just a few months ago. If the transfer window is open to Chelsea in January, expect one or two shrewd purchases of younger players already starting to show potential in English football.

And yes, that would rule Heskey out.

Comments

[syd_master]

no need to buy new player in January....just we already have strong sub player like zhirkov...j.cole..ivanovic

[Hikki Morisato]

You are looking it in the wrong way...we will lose 2 strikers and 2 defensive midfielders during ACN. While we do have string of world class midfielders that can fill that void, none of them are specifically tailored for that position.
Even though i agree with letting Sturridge have his time on the field, we do need a safety net in case he fails to fire all the cylinders and/or injuries.
We can sign players of other positions in the summer transfer window.(If we do have one!?)