• 26-year-old joins Stamford Bridge club for around £7m
• André Villas-Boas praises player’s abilities and values
Gary Cahill has described the opportunity to move to Chelsea as too good to turn down, having finally completed a £7m move from Bolton Wanderers after two weeks haggling over personal terms.
The England centre-half is understood to have compromised on his original wage demands to accept a figure of around £80,000 a week to swap the Reebok Stadium for Stamford Bridge, and has signed a contract until the summer of 2017. The 26-year-old will train with his new team-mates for the first time on Tuesday and is in contention to make his debut for the club at Norwich City on Saturday.
Cahill, who has seven England caps, will hope to cement his place in Fabio Capello’s squad with his performances over the remainder of the season before the summer’s European Championship, having already struck up a fine understanding alongside John Terry in the national team. “Chelsea is a massive club, a club that looks to win trophies season in, season out, and it is a big opportunity for me to be a part of that,” said the former Aston Villa defender, whose Bolton contract was due to expire in the summer. “Opportunities like this, you can’t turn down.
“This is the right move for me at the right time and I would like to thank everyone at Bolton because I’ve had a great four years at the football club. My spell with Wanderers has enabled me to break into the England squad, and I would particularly like to thank the fans for their support along the way.”
Cahill could prove to be the only permanent arrival at Stamford Bridge during the midwinter window, with André Villas-Boas having recognised the need to strengthen at the back, particularly after Chelsea accepted a transfer request from Alex. “Gary has good technical abilities, which is important in the way we want to play and to implement our philosophy, our passing philosophy in building from the back,” the manager said. “He has speed of anticipation, is an English international of course, and has values off the pitch.
“From what we know and when we met the player we can see what he represents as a person and that is also good for us. He adds to a very, very good back four and he competes with three of the world’s best [in David Luiz, Terry and Branislav Ivanovic at centre-back]. Competition will be tight for him but we brought him in to become better as a team.”
Alex could yet complete a move to Queens Park Rangers this week if a fee can be agreed and Mark Hughes can persuade the player to fling himself into a relegation battle at the wrong end of the Premier League rather than hold out for a return to his native Brazil. Chelsea have loaned their young players Josh McEachran and Patrick van Aanholt to Swansea City and Vitesse Arnhem, respectively, for the remainder of the season, the latter having failed to make an impression with Wigan over the first half of the campaign.
The Chelsea assistant first-team coach, Steve Holland, has revealed that Fernando Torres has been undertaking extra shooting drills in a bid to end a personal goal drought that stretches back to late September in the Premier League. Torres marks the first anniversary of his £50m move from Liverpool at the end of the month, and has been showing encouraging signs in the first team in recent weeks, form that was required with Didier Drogba absent at the Africa Cup of Nations.
“Fernando is working very hard at his finishing in training,” Holland said. “We do a lot of finishing as part of the sessions anyway, but he is doing extra at the end of every session during the week. His finishing is looking very good in training, the ball is flying in. I have personally spent some time with him on making sure [he's in the right position]. Sometimes when you’re trying hard to score, you end up in areas where you’re less likely to score. It’s not a bad crime, it’s only because he’s so determined.”
ChelseaBolton WanderersTransfer windowDominic Fifield
guardian.co.uk
