Gary Cahill Deal Agreed - Report

While I wouldn't go so far as to call this definitive, The Mirror is reporting that Gary Cahill has finally agreed personal terms with Chelsea on a five and a half year contract that runs until the close of the 2016/17 season. The wages? £80,000 a week. That's lower that then £100,000 Cahill's camp was reportedly demanding, but still significantly higher than I was hoping to pay for him.

Fortunately, the transfer fee is relatively low and there should be some sell-on value as the contract winds down, so Cahill's deal will only end up costing Chelsea £5.45M per season, but it's still an overpay in my book. Cahill's a decent option as a backup, but he's making starter money, and it would be unfortunately if the Blues were forced to give him more playing time than he deserves as a result*.

*I'm not rooting against Cahill, by any means. If he turns out to be the second coming of Marcel Desailly, I'd be all for that.

If the Mirror's report is accurate, I'm glad this is done, because we needed a Cahill-like player on the team. I'm just slightly annoyed that we're having to pay so much for the pleasure. When I have confirmation that they're not just making stuff up, I'll let you know. The defender is reportedly coming to Stamford Bridge for a medical on Friday night (i.e. as I'm writing this).

PS: If you're feeling really cranky about Cahill's supposed wages, just imagine we paid Bolton £15M for him and then gave him £50k/week. Same thing.