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After being continually rejected in their approaches for Luka Modric this summer, Chelsea FC finally moved on and signed a stop gap midfielder in the form of Raul Meireles. Many of us here at WAGNH seem to be much happier with the move, as at 40 million Luka Modric wouldn't have represented any sort of decent value. Andre Villas Boas was recently asked about the possibility of approaching Daniel Levy again in January, to which he responded:
No I don't think so. The market is closed and I won't speculate what happens in January.
He also commented on our approach to FC Porto over wing-back Alvaro Pereira:
We were very far from meeting Porto's demands for Alvaro. I am happy with Ashley Cole and Ryan Bertrand.
I have a hard time viewing that as anything other than good news on both fronts. I'm glad to hear that we weren't trying to break the bank with Pereira, as he's a good player but not a huge need for us. Signing him at a bit of a bargain would have made me happy, but he just wasn't worth breaking the bank for. I was also fairly opposed to the Modric move once Levy rejected the 27 million bid. I just didn't feel he'd be a very good investment at a higher price, so I was quite happy when we ended up missing out. January will likely be very interesting, but it's good to see that we aren't simply focusing on these two players. Hopefully PvA, Gael Kakuta, and Josh McEachran will impress enough that we don't end up coming back for these guys at all, as I'd much rather see us focus on finding a future replacement for Jose Bosingwa come January than anything else.