Alvaro Pereira Deal Falls Apart, Reports DN

On Monday, a report in A Bola suggested that Chelsea were on the verge of paying FC Porto the full buyout clause for Uruguayan utilityman Alvaro Pereiraa - a sum of €30M. Said report never made much sense, because while Pereira is an excellent player and worth a good chunk of money, he most assuredly is not worth that much to a team without an obvious starting position for him. Meanwhile, other rumours had a deal done between Porto and Chelsea for €22M.

If the latest reports are true... well, both A Bola's story and the other rumours floating around were kind of right, but mostly wrong. Check out the latest from DN Desporto (I have no idea how credible this outlet is, but what they're saying makes sense in light of Monday's stories):

O Chelsea esteve em negociações com o FC Porto para a compra do passe do lateral esquerdo, mas o clube londrino limitou a sua oferta a 22 milhões de euros, apurou o DN. Os dirigentes portistas, contudo, exigiram o pagamento da cláusula de rescisão de Álvaro Pereira, cifrada em 30 milhões de euros. O Chelsea decidiu não subir a oferta e, segundo informações recolhidas pelo DN, as negociações entre os dois clubes terminaram.

-Source: DN Desporto.

Translation by Google!

Chelsea have been in negotiations with FC Porto for the purchase of the left-sided Alvaro Pereira, but the London club limited its offer to €22 million, found the DN. Porto's board, however, demanded payment of the termination clause of Alvaro Pereira, set at 30 million euros. Chelsea decided not to raise the offer and, according to information collected by the DN, the negotiations between the two clubs ended [on Monday night].

So, if the latest report is true (and I don't think we have much cause to think that it isn't) the €22M was correct and the €30M was correct, but the deal being done was apparently wrong. This makes sense from every aspect - Chelsea would have had to have been utterly insane to spend €30M on a man who for all of his merits would essentially be a utility player at Stamford Bridge, and Porto had no real reason to sell below their release clause.

I was getting myself excited for Pereira the player, but I don't think I'd ever have been thrilled for his price tag. Even €22M seemed a little steep, although I wouldn't have thrown anything in rage if we did that. I'm pretty glad that Chelsea weren't crazy enough to pay the full fee Porto were demanding, even if we're missing out on a really neat wingback in the process.

Of course, the clubs cutting off negotiations two days before the window closes is exactly what happened in the protracted David Luiz saga with Benfica, and we all know how that turned out, so if you're a Pereira fanatic... well, I wouldn't let your hopes die completely.