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One of the major surprises so far this season has been the development of Gokhan Tore into one of the better players in Germany this spring and has led many to question why he was allowed to leave Chelsea at all. Some interesting news has been confirmed by former Chelsea DoF Frank Arnesen today in the German media. According to the Hamburger Morganpost, Arnesen has been attributed with the following quote on the Tore situation:
Gokhan is our player, but Chelsea would get in a sale 50 percent.
Arnesen was reportedly being asked if their was any truth to the recent rumors that Chelsea had some sort of partial ownership or buyback clause. While that doesn't appear to be the case, it definitely appears that Chelsea are in a very favorable position to make a serious amount of money if Tore leaves the club before 2014. Tore's value has skyrocketed, and the player and his agent are already talking openly about a move to Turkey this coming summer.
We also made a bit of a forced sale of Slobodan Rajkovic when he was again denied a work permit this summer. Arnesen also revealed in the same interview that Chelsea have the option to buy him back for the same fee that they sold him for at any time during the player's contract, so we do have a 2 million Euro option on a quality backup center back should we feel he's in a position to be granted a work permit. That's two bits of good news out of Hamburg this morning...now let's all cross our fingers and hope somebody approaches HSV with an offer of silly money.