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The signing of Demba Ba has now been confirmed by Chelsea FC, making Ba an official Chelsea player. He will be joining the Blues on a three and a half year deal, that will run until the summer of 2016. Ba is 27 years old right now, and will be 30 years old in the final year of his deal. He wore number 19 at Newcastle, but Paolo Ferriera currently occupies that shirt, so the new signing will wear the no.29 shirt.
If the rumor mill is to be believed, Ba will be getting wages of around ₤70k per week, an entirely reasonable sum of money for a player who scored in bunches the way he did. After amortizing his transfer fee, Ba will have a hit of ₤5.64 million per season, which is only slightly higher that the ₤5.03 million hit that we were carrying for Daniel Sturridge. Money well spent in my eyes, and a fairly short term deal should help minimize the risk of his knees exploding at some point.
With the signing having been finalized before noon on Friday, Ba will be eligible to dress for Saturday's game against Southampton. Whether or not we see his debut in that one is up in the air, but it would sure be nice to see someone other than Fernando Torres for a change.
For now, we'll leave the final word with our exciting new signing.
'When the club who won the Champions League wants you, the decision is very easy. This club is massive and that's something that helped the decision a lot. It was not a hard one.'