Stupid Chelsea FC rumor of the day: Alberto Pereira for £25 million

Chelsea have money.  Chelsea like to spend money.  Chelsea hired a coach from Porto (that coach cost lots of money...see?).  Porto have some good players.  Chelsea like good players.  Chelsea must buy all Porto good players, especially since Porto want lots of money that Chelsea have.  This seemingly unflappable logic was on display again today, this time courtesy of the Daily Mail.  According to always credible source "Sportsmail Reporter" (I have to attribute this rumor to him/her as the Mail failed to hint at an actual source), we're so distraught by the departure of rarely used Yuri Zhirkov that we're going to go out and spend £25 million on a replacement in the form of Alberto Pereira.  Never mind that we voluntarily sold Zhirkov, a player who was still under contract, for about 1/2 that amount.  We clearly need the Porto left back.

Pereira is an attack minded left back who can also slot in as a left sided midfielder in a pinch.  We're pretty strong at left back, possibly having the best starter in the world in Ashley Cole already manning the position.  We also have enough of a glut of young talent behind him that one of the promising youngsters Ryan Bertrand or Patrick van Aanholt will likely be sent out on loan despite being quite capable of deputizing.   The one place the Zhirkov may actually be a loss is on the left wing, but Pereira is not really a natural forward by any stretch of the imagination.  I guess the thought could be to convert him and cause even more of a glut with our ridiculous amount of attackers.

I'd guess we've been in contact with Porto over one or two of their players, but I highly doubt that Pereira has even come up in conversation.  As impressive as he was in the Copa America, he's just not going to play much in the systems we've seen employed this preseason.  At 25 he also doesn't represent much in the way of a buy for the future.  I guess it's a slow news day in London without much else going on that the press could be covering.  Try a little harder next time unnamed Sportsmail Reporter, or at least be willing to put your name to the article so we can all laugh at you on twitter.