Chelsea Agree £23.5 Million Deal To Sign Valencia's Juan Mata
Spanish World Cup winning left winger, long thought to be Arsene Wenger's number 1 choice as a Fabregas replacement, could undergo his medical at Stamford Bridge today and be a Chelsea player by tomorrow.
Chelsea have agreed a deal with Valencia for their 23 year old midfielder Juan Manuel Mata the Spanish club have revealed but failed to confirm the fee, believed to be around £23.5 million. The transfer is now subject only to the player passing his medical, which we presume will take place early this week (rumours it could be today, Monday), ahead of next weekend's fixtures. Blues manager Andre Villas-Boas has long signalled a lack of creativity in the midfield area as one which requires some significant improvement and he has spent most of the summer chasing Tottenham playmaker Luka Modric. But with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy unwilling to let the player go for anything below £30 million, seemingly Villas-Boas has just become tired of the never ending negotiations and has gone elsewhere for the new talent he requires. Mata, who played the majority of his 129 game career for Valencia as a left winger and scored 33 goals, and 11 times for Spain scoring 4 goals (including 10 mins in the World Cup final)... perhaps might be seen as someone who can play through the middle for Chelsea as one of the Blues more important players is left winger Florent Malouda. Mata has long been seen as someone who would adapt well to the Premiership and a World Cup winner who was probably reachable for a transfer as he doesn't play for Real Madrid or Barcelona. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was the first to cite interest but for reasons only known to the Frenchman, he decided not to pursue the transfer when he had the opportunity to make a quick Cesc Fabregas replacement last month. What is Champions League hopefuls Arsenal's loss is clearly title challengers Chelsea's gain...and possibly Modric's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7fneK_kJb4