Chelsea prepare to sell Ba

If Chelsea come in for Tiote or one of our other stars I'd hope Mike would consider a part exchange deal...


http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/10473252._/?

JOSE MOURINHO will be officially presented as Chelsea's new manager this afternoon – and one of his first acts could be to axe former Newcastle United striker Demba Ba.

Mourinho is looking to bring in at least two big-name strikers this summer, with Hulk and Edinson Cavani at the top of his wanted list.

Bayer Leverkusen's Andre Schurrle and Fiorentina's Stevan Jovetic have also been discussed as possible options, but if Mourinho signs new attackers, he will be encouraged to sell at least one of his current centre-forwards.


Fernando Torres would be the first choice to go, but Roman Abramovich will refuse to take a major hit on the £50m fee he shelled out to sign the Spaniard from Liverpool.

Therefore, Ba could well be the fall guy, with Chelsea all but guaranteed to make a profit after they exploited a clause in the striker's Newcastle contract to sign him for just £7m in January.

Ba scored two Premier League goals for Chelsea last season, and Mourinho does not see him as the man to fire the Blues back into the Premier League title chase.

 

As soon as I read "could" within the first couple of sentences, realization dawns that it's just a made up piece of filler. The amount of "stories" that have featured the past couple of weeks that have had less than no foundation whatsoever is incredible. My favorite was a Gooner-led article about NUFC's "interest" in Gervinho, which included and cited a link to a Northern Echo article....from 2011, when we first were competing with them.

 

Agreed pure speculation. The media have just made up their mind that Ba is not 'box office' enough to be in a Mourinho managed team.

 

I could win the lottery today but I doubt it. I remember the Gervinho story well, it seemed to go on for quite a while and attracted a lot of attention. We've lost a lot of the original posters from those days, would be nice to see them back on board.

 

Tiote would not get in their team or warm their bench much and we cant afford Ba`s new wages either.

 

Doubt we can afford Demba in wages or fee but I'd welcome him back into the fold.

 

We looked clueless with Ba, a lot would depend on whether that fcking d!ckwad manager learnt his lesson or not. I suspect he hasn't, so let's leave Ba where he is and go for the u-25 market.

 

Do you think he has?

The thing about Ba though is that he played well with Cisse.

 

When they actually played as a pair... Which was not too often... Pardew would stick Ba on the left wing or Cisse on the right, depending on who the lone-striker was, they are too similar. If they were rotated then it would work but Pardew wouldn't do it before.

 

Don't think Ba can be sold till January anyway. I'm sure there is stipulation preventing a player moving twice in a calendar year.

 

My understanding is that he can't play for three different clubs in the space of 12 months

 

I honestly think this could be just paper talk with Ba. Mourinho hasn't even had a chance to assess yet. Torres, Ba, Lukaku. Cracking options and even if he does add a superstar like Cavani, he might just keep Ba as the background option. Nothing wrong with having 4 great options and its not like Roman can't afford it.

I think Ba and Cisse can work as long as one plays through the middle and one goes wide like their first season, or you rotate them. They don't really work as a pair in a 442. But if you can get them taking turns in filling the wide role or just mix and match with another strike option then it can work just fine.

 

Can't see the point of using a striker as winger. We have wingers who are better at playing wide than either Cisse or Ba. If you want a wide man, play one.

Making them compete against each other just ot get on the pitch, though, might play dividends

 

I don't think I'd term it a winger to be honest. He never really played as a winger for us, West Ham or Hoffenheim. He did operate from the left side though for all three. Almost like an old inside forward. Defensively he'd certainly drop in to the normal wide man role but he drifted inside a fair bit in an attacking sense.

He can definitely do the role but I suppose the overriding factor would be his willingness to fulfill such a role should he be available (which I doubt) and should a transfer be possible (which it sounds like it isn't). He did seem keen to play through the middle without saying as much. If so then it seems pointless if you intend to play that way a lot to ask him to fulfill a role he's not keen on.

Putting them up against each other would certainly serve the team best. I wouldn't worry about one becoming unhappy if the other is getting more starts. That is football and something you have to learn to juggle and deal with. If one decides to leave, shift him on and get another one in. SAF has done it regularly over the years. Look at Berba. It mattered not he was top scorer, he just moved him out.

 

I think JM may move him on.
Hope we at least try to do a deal.
Time will tell.

 

I'm in two minds as to whether he grafted his nuts off to get to the top then just sat back and relaxed or whether he still put the effort in but the contrast was we played all our attacks through him and he's not got a sniff with all Chelsea's attacking quality.
Pure paper speculation though. Why would Roman not take a hit on Torres? he's not going to gain any value as his contract runs down and he gets older.
I'd take him back as an extra option but he couldn't be played to the detriment of Cisse. Either find a way they work together or rotate, simple.

 

Nope, don't want him. Would rather Carroll, someone who could play on his own and work with Cisse. Ba can only do it on his own