Fortunately this is only from the Daily Fail so shouldn't hold any water! Chelsea are prepared to use Yossi Benayoun as bait in their attempt to prise Luka Modric from Tottenham. Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has long been an admirer of Benayoun, and showed interest in the creative midfielder when he left Liverpool last year. The Israel captain moved to Stamford Bridge instead but failed to make an impression in a season wrecked by a heel injury. He has been bright during pre-season but it is indicative of Chelseaâs desire to land Modric that Andre Villas-Boas is prepared to sacrifice Benayoun. Since arriving from Porto in June, Villas-Boas has spoken many times about the importance of players who can operate âbetween the linesâ, bringing fluidity and unpredictability to Chelseaâs rigid system. Benayoun fits into this category, not to mention the fact that he is perhaps the only player to have displayed any chemistry with Fernando Torres. The pair used to room together when they played for Liverpool and Torres has looked most alive during his eight months at Chelsea when the Israeli has been on the pitch with him. However, Benayoun is 31 and has two years left on the deal he signed when moving from Anfield for £5.5million last summer. He has barely played for the Blues, having ruptured an achilles tendon in September and spent seven months recuperating, an absence which limited him to only one start in the Premier League under Carlo Ancelotti. A move to Tottenham might appeal to Benayoun, who is on international duty with Israel in Geneva, where they play a friendly against the Ivory Coast on Wednesday. Spurs, who have rejected bids of £22m and £27m, are optimistic that they can fight off Chelseaâs interest and convince Modric, who is in Ireland with Croatia, to commit to at least one more year at White Hart Lane, even though he has already said he wants to leave. Redknappâs midfield options have already been depleted by injuries and he learned that Steven Pienaar will miss the first six weeks of the season after groin surgery. Sandro is out with a knee injury sustained training with Brazil at the Copa America last month. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...oun-Spurs-seal-Modric-deal.html#ixzz1UbXwUwTj
I don't think it would be a straight swap!!! Anyway, the fact it's the daily fail I'm sure we can all chalk this off as filling inches.
It's almost certainly total fantasy. The Fail have printed a Modric Out story virtually every day since the season ended. Why not? Benayoun's wages would be too high, Levy wouldn't want to effectively pay money to sign a 31-year-old, he's probably wouldn't make it into our first XI and his fitness has been questionable for a while. Pass.
That seems to be the implication, doesn't it? You'd think that it would have put him off signing for Chelsea in the first place, given their supporters behaviour, but apparently not.
The irony is that Abramovich is the one interested in boosting Israeli football. After all, he's brought Benayoun and Ben Haim into the club, employed Avram Grant twice, is in cahoots with Pini Zahavi...
He wanted Spurs first but because of the land around WHL and the trouble with expanding it, he choose Chelsea instead. We could of had Mourinho and the 2 titles...
I heard that he choose Chelsea because of the cost of Spurs, King. Chelsea can't really expand Stamford Bridge.
That's true. However Stamford Bridge sits on some of the most expensive Real Estate in the world. I wouldn't even hazard a guess at the value of the land alone.
The problem with that NSIS is that Chelsea don't own the pitch, turnstiles or name of the club. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Pitch_Owners Abramovich will still make a killing when he moves the club, renames them, redevelops the land and sells the club, though. If he sells them, I mean...
He owns some of the land, Ensil. He could redevelop the land that the stands, hotel, entrances, etc. stand on.
