With the arrival of Samuel Eto'o, Chelsea now have four centre forwards on the books. That's probably one too many, so the current consensus is that it's likely Demba Ba who'll be moved out, but there's also been some worrying chatter that Romelu Lukaku -- who's still yet to start a real game under Jose Mourinho -- might be out of favour and thus loanable.
When it comes to a Lukaku loan, few outside of Chelsea themselves will be as knowledgeable as Steve Clarke, who had the striker at West Bromwich Albion last season and would presumably do awful, awful things to have him back. And so when he says not to worry... well, we don't have to worry:
I exchanged text messages with Jose three or four weeks ago and he said Lukaku is definitely not going out. He said he was a big player for Chelsea this season and I think he's right.
-Source: Sky Sports.
So that's that. But, obviously, Clarke was addressing more than just Lukaku -- he also confirmed that Victor Moses was available on a loan deal and a possible West Brom target.
I believe Moses is available to come out (on loan) and he is a player we would be interested in. I can't say I'm confident of landing any player because time is short and I'm getting a little bit nervous.
The Moses rumour's been floating around for a little while but until these quotes I hadn't seen anything to really ground it. But it's one that makes sense -- despite the insistence that the Willian deal threatens Juan Mata from outside observers, it's Moses whom the Brazilian's most likely to displace, and he could do with more regular playing time anyway.
I'd expect that one to go through (although not necessarily to West Brom; Liverpool are also interested) by the deadline on Monday.