Mourinho: Traore work permit coming in January

Now that Bertrand Traore is all signed, one might have expected that the club had dotted their is and crossed their ts in getting a work permit for him as well. That, however, is not the case -- the Burkina Faso wonderkid doesn't have a work permit yet and will not be allowed to play in England until he gets one. Fortunately, we now know when he's getting one:

Traore is a great talent that the club followed for a long time before me.I wanted to take him to pre-season to have a view of him for two or three weeks and play him in front of 60,000 to 80,000 crowds like we have in Asia.

Now we could get him. We have to wait for other things, a work permit is coming in January, but we have a kid who in our opinion is one of the best talents of his age.

-Jose Mourinho. Source: ChelseaFC.com.

January's as good a date as any, and would allow Traore plenty of playing time in the academy this year. I know there's some talk of an immediate loan, but my feeling is that he needs at least half a season in the club's setup before he's ready to head out elsewhere.

As Mourinho says, Traore's an elite talent, and we're lucky to have finally secured him. Good work by Chelsea over the past few years on this one.