Chelsea FC Transfer Rumours: Inter Milan To Hold Maicon Talks

With Jose Bosingwa leaving Chelsea eleven days ago, the Blues are in need of a backup right back. As of right now, they have Branislav Ivanovic and then a whole pile of not much, no matter how fond we are of Paulo Ferreira, Sam Hutchinson and the like. Unless we're going to play around with the idea of Ramires as an auxiliary fullback (which seems like a fun experiment, although not one you'd want to rely on), a right back needs to come in this summer.

We've been linked to some of Europe's best, with the likes of Mathieu Debuchy and Lukazs Piszczek on our supposed shopping list. We've been linked to prospects like Marseille's Cesar Azpilicueta so often than I can spell Azpilicueta without looking him up. But what we probably need, more than anything else, is a guy who can simply help out, one without a big transfer fee or expectations of constant playing time.

That's why signing Maicon's always made some sense - the 30-year-old is clearly on the downslope of his career, but is very good when still rested, won't bring in a huge transfer fee and would give a clear alternative to the more defensively-minded Ivanovic when we need to switch things up. There had been rumblings that Chelsea are interested in his services and that Inter Milan would be happy to sell, but things had quietened down recently -- everyone was too busy talking about how half of the available attacking talent on the planet was heading to Stamford Bridge to talk about a less interesting deal, I suppose.

Regardless, it's apparently still in the works, according to Milan-based journalist Tancredi Palmeri. He's claimingthat Inter sporting director Marco Branca will be in London on Thursday and Friday to negotiate several deals with English teams, and first on the list is determining whether or not the nerazzurri will sell Maicon to the Blues.

Obviously, no deal has been struck as of yet, but this is promising news if you buy the argument that Maicon's a more reasonably right-back pickup than in-their-prime talents like Debuchy and Piszczek. I'm hoping a deal can get done quickly and we can add more Brazilians to our collection. I've always liked Maicon, mainly because someone once told me that he's named after Michael Jackson*, so I might be biased.

*I have no idea whether or not this is true, but don't tell me it isn't or I will be sad.