Official: Gary Cahill signs new four-year deal

Two weeks ago, Chelsea football Michael Emenalo said in one of his interviews that the club were looking to lock down good and talented players in the first-team squad to long-term deals, even if the current season hasn't been on par with our usual standards. Taking another step further on this direction, Chelsea announced that Gary Cahill signed a new four-year deal with the club.

.@ChelseaFC is delighted to announce @GaryJCahill has signed a new four-year contract... https://t.co/DwWHmQxCAM pic.twitter.com/Sm2fa1i3ul

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) 2. Dezember 2015

Gary Cahill's previous deal was signed by the player in 2012 when he arrived from Bolton, and was set to run out in 2017 by which time he'd be well over 30 and thus eligible for only one-year deals. As it stands, he beat his 30th birthday by a couple weeks to sign this new one, which will end in 2019, and possibly also offers an improvement on the £80,000 per week wages from the old contract.

The English international has had 9 starts in the Premier League this season, most of them accumulated after a run of bad performances by John Terry. He has started our last two matches after three straight on the bench, in part due to Terry's injury.

Cahill might be only a back-up at the moment but given John Terry's drop-off in form and young Zouma's often inconsistent performances, the England vice-captain's experience, steadiness, key goals, and other such contributions to the first-team can't be understated.