Another Chelsea veteran wants out thanks to reduced role under Hiddink

First it was Ramires, now it's apparently Gary Cahill.  So claims the exclusive from none other than Reuters.  I didn't know Reuters were in the business of breaking football news, but I also didn't think that we'd get £25m for Ramires, or that we'd sign Pato, or that we'd sign some random American kid.  It's been that sort of day, so Cahill wanting out certainly fits.

England centre back Gary Cahill is so frustrated by a lack of first-team football at Chelsea that he wants to leave the club in an attempt to safeguard his international place at the European Championship in the summer.

-source: Reuters

While Cahill started the very first match under Guus Hiddink, he's been solidly stuck to the bench since as the interim manager has preferred to keep the Terry-Zouma partnership intact.  I have no qualms about that decision, so if Cahill wants out, then by all means, cash-in ... especially if we can get anywhere near the sort of payday as we got for Ramires (talking percents here, not raw sums obviously).  Cahill arrived for around £7-8m four years ago and since then, he's won just about every trophy imaginable.  He signed a new long-term contract only recently, just ahead of his 30th birthday, but as we saw with Ramires (or Mourinho) that doesn't really matter.

With Miazga (possibly) coming in to replace Djilobodji, maybe the young American is actually ear-marked for a slightly bigger role in case we need to cover for Cahill as well.  While reducing the squad to just two first-team center backs is not ideal, Branislav Ivanovic's versatility does afford a bit of leeway and perhaps a few more minutes for a certain Baba Rahman, even!