Atletico Madrid left-back Filipe Luis will move to Stamford Bridge for a reported fee of £20 million after Chelsea met the Spaniards' valuation of their star.
Filipe will come in as successor to former Blues stalwart Ashley Cole, who this week joined Roma on a two-year deal after entering free agency. The BBC's Nick Sutton tweets Chelsea's progress via the Sun's back page:
Thursday's Sun back page - "Bluis - Chelsea land £20m replacement for Cole" #tomorrowspaperstoday #cfc #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/OVpeEyvaGX
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) July 9, 2014
Rob Beasley of The Sun (subscription required) reports Chelsea will pay the fee, thought to be the value of the Brazil international's release clause, to make him their third Atletico acquisition of the summer.
Beasley writes:
The tough-tackling six-footer has spent most of his career playing in Spain and will join his Atletico team-mates Diego Costa (£32m) and Tiago (free) in making the switch to Stamford Bridge.The Londoners have also added midfielders Cesc Fabregas (£27m) from Barcelona and Mario Pasalic (£3m) from Hajduk Split.
Mourinho also has Cesar Azpilicueta—who is capable of providing cover on the left side of defence, as well as in his more natural right-back role—within his ranks, and the Portuguese boss is seeking to build a squad capable of overcoming last season's trophy-less disappointment.
During his days as manager of Porto, Real Madrid and Inter, Mourinho never grew too accustomed to the notion of going entire campaigns without silverware.
With that in mind, he is taking the initiative to correct any weakness in his squad during this summer transfer window.
Earlier this week, Metro reported on Chelsea's second, improved offer of £15 million for Filipe's services, but the west Londoners would appear to have quickly stumped up more in an effort to force a swift deal:
Chelsea make improved £15m offer for Atletico Madrid's Filipe Luis #cfc http://t.co/rTfCk3PBE7 pic.twitter.com/IYDfPcy2XR
— Metro Sport (@Metro_Sport) July 8, 2014
The club are also working hard to retain the talents of their existing stars, and ESPN claims that Petr Cech has been offered the vice-captaincy in order to convince the goalkeeper he's still valued at Stamford Bridge.
It's long been foretold that Thibaut Courtois will challenge for the No. 1 jersey, and after three successful campaigns on loan at the Vicente Calderon, this could be the season that he finally appears in Chelsea blue.
ESPN cites The Times in stating that Mourinho sees Courtois as his primary stopper for the next decade, but Cech—still an elite 'keeper in his own right—wants to retain his spot as the top-billed figure between the team's posts.
While Courtois was in Marc Wilmots' Belgian side on World Cup duty, the Red Devils manager let it slip that Cech would apparently be cut loose, per Metro.
However, Mirror writer Martin Lipton says that Mourinho can't expect Cech to give up his prominence as Iker Casillas did for Diego Lopez during the Portuguese's time at Real Madrid:
@joekrishnan Casillas accepted his demotion. Cech won't. Neither will Courtois
— Martin Lipton (@MartinLipton) June 2, 2014
The 32-year-old's dislocated shoulder, suffered at the end of last season, gives Courtois an early advantage at the very least, which could be Mourinho's way of justifying his future selection.
Such an eventuality may force Cech into considering that his future lies elsewhere, with the promise of vice-captaincy perhaps seen as paltry reimbursement if he doesn't figure regularly in the Premier League.
Source: Bleacher Report
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