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You know what's underrated? How annoying the twin Alex and Gary Cahill sagas are. At the start of the season, Chelsea had four available, Premier League quality centre halves to pick from. That's plenty of depth even if a player went down with an injury. Now they have two, Alex hasn't been available for something like the past three months, and the Gary Cahill transfer still isn't done.
Many of us were sold on the Cahill deal as a relatively cheap home-grown player replacement for a competent, aging Brazilian, and that was fine, but the reality of this deal is that the longer it goes on the more risk of something disastrous happening in the centre of the defence. We've already seen Jose Bosingwa as a centre back against Tottenham Hotspur, a bizarre and terrifying move that miraculously worked out ok, and we nearly got the same again when John Terry went down against Portsmouth in our 3rd round FA Cup tie.
So I think I speak for most Chelsea fans when my response to Andre Villas Boas saying this:
From what I know from my chief executive, there has been an approach from a Premier League club [for Alex]. We have respected Alex's transfer request so the market's open for him.
We're just trying to reach the level of proposal we think is good for the player. Nothing has happened up to now, but we'll listen to all offers. We'll present anything to the player. He has to make a decision. He has generated interest from a lot of clubs.
and this:
[Cahill is still] an ongoing negotiation, not that we don't want it resolved as soon as possible. I'm sure that all of the parties are protecting their interests.
is HURRY THE [FUN] UP ALREADY. We're wasting time when we can't really afford to, and if Gary Cahill's demanding crazy wages you should have realised that earlier and never gotten yourselves into this mess. I'm fine with Alex as the fourth choice centre back. I'm ok with Cahill there too. I'm not ok with having no fourth choice while Branislav Ivanovic is hurt. This is really really stupid and it needs to end now. So get it done!
PS: The Premier League club in for Alex is believed to be Queens Park Rangers.