One of the biggest surprises of last night’s transfer window was Chelsea’s late announcement that the club had agreed a deal with Liverpool for the services of Raul Meireles.
With many expecting the Luka Modric deal to happen -despite the protestations of Harry Redknapp that the Croatian would be “One million percent staying”- it became apparent as the day progressed that Tottenham were, indeed, unwilling to budge over the sale of their prized playmaker, regardless of the size of their London neighbour’s offer.
Andre Villas-Boas turned to his compatriot, therefore, and the deal, thought to be in the region of £12m, sees the Portuguese midfielder arrive at Stamford Bridge on a four-year contract.
The Stats
A product of the Boavista youth academy, Meireles’ first-team career started off with a two year loan at Portguese second division side Aves, wherein he made 42 appearances and notched just the one goal. He returned to Boavista the following season but failed to score in 29 showings.
A move to FC Porto beckoned and in six years Meireles played 138 times, scoring 15 goals and picking up, amongst other things, four league titles.
An impressive display for Portugal (47 caps, 8 goals) at the 2010 World Cup put Meireles on the radar of more scouts from across the globe but it was Liverpool who got their man for a 13 million Euro fee. This paid dividend in the second half of last year in particular, when he picked up the PFA Fans’ player of the Year award for 5 goals and 6 assists in 29 games.
The Prospects
The Meireles switch is a head-scratcher for a couple of reasons. Liverpool have decided to sell one of the most successful players of what was an otherwise tumultuous campaign and, as pointed out, while Chelsea will be happy to have signed a creative midfielder for a fee much smaller than the £40million reportedly offered for Luka Modric, this is a player that manager Andre Villas-Boas himself agreed to sell from FC Porto just 12 months ago.
Where he actually fits into things at Chelsea is also another conundrum to be solved. Frank Lampard is 33 years of age and in a slow decline but to expect him to drop out suddenly would be verging on foolish. More likely will be to see Meireles afforded, at least for now, either a wider berth in the Chelsea outfit or a first-team slot at the expense of Ramires.
One thing Chelsea have been distinctly lacking in the last few years is a creative forward drive in the middle of the park. Frank Lampard has upped his creativity so far this campaign- a look at our Members Area show the midfielder has doubled the number of goal scoring chances created per game compared to last season- and, alongside the recent signing of Juan Mata, Meireles gives Villas-Boas a further creative option in the key central area.
If given the chance in the Chelsea starting XI, not only may we finally see a glimmer of the old Fernando Torres but, at just 7.5 in Fantasy Premier League (FPL), Fantasy Managers will perhaps be seeing a cost-efficient option from a top team at their disposal sooner rather than later.
