• Benfica midfielder will cost the champions £16.8m
• Portuguese club entitled to performance-related bonuses

Chelsea hope to secure the capture of Benfica’s Brazil midfielder Ramires this week, when he returns to Lisbon from his post-World Cup break. Ramires will discuss the proposed transfer with Benfica’s directors and he is expected to move to west London for ¤20m (£16.8m). The Portuguese club would also be entitled to performance-related bonuses.

The deal has not yet been concluded and Benfica would like to discuss Chelsea including players in part-exchange. But, having added only the midfielder Yossi Benayoun so far this summer, the Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti, is close to broadening his options.

Ancelotti has seen the midfielders Joe Cole and Michael Ballack leave the club as free agents and another midfielder, Deco, is expected to return to his native Brazil, so that he might spend more time with his seriously ill young son. Chelsea have also released the defender Juliano Belletti.

Ramires, 23, is a competitive and durable midfielder – he is rarely injured – and he would appear well suited to the Premier League. If Benfica were to sell him, it would suit them to close the deal quickly, so that they could sign a replacement. The businessman Kia Joorabchian has a 50% stake in the player.

ChelseaTransfer windowDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk

• Chelsea’s Cech has torn a muscle in his right calf
• Hilário likely to be given the nod ahead of Turnbull

Henrique Hilário is in line to start the new season in goal for Chelsea, after the club confirmed that Petr Cech had torn the calf muscle in his right leg and would be sidelined for the next four weeks.

Carlo Ancelotti, the manager, is expected to prefer Hilário to his other back-up goalkeeper, Ross Turnbull, for the Community Shield fixture against Manchester United two weeks on Sunday and the Premier League opener at home to West Bromwich Albion the following Saturday. If Cech’s rehabilitation goes according to plan, he should be back for the game at Wigan Athletic on 21 August.

Cech had returned to Chelsea training on 5 July, together with Hilário and Turnbull, and he had hoped to benefit from a full pre-season, as a side-effect of the Czech Republic failing to qualify for the World Cup. But after playing for 30 minutes in the 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday he will now miss the club’s remaining friendlies against Ajax, Eintracht Frankfurt and Hamburg.

Hilário was put through extra training yesterday by the goalkeeping coach Christophe Lollichon, after Cech felt his calf muscle tear during a routine jog and the 34-year-old Portuguese, who made 11 appearances in all competitions last season, is preparing for a return to the spotlight.

Chelseaguardian.co.uk

• Decision to move to Anfield a ‘no-brainer’
• Midfielder ‘jumped on board’ after hearing plans

Joe Cole today completed his free transfer from Chelsea to Liverpool and immediately risked upsetting his former employer by provocatively claiming he had joined “the biggest club in the country”. The England international, who has signed a four-year contract, dismissed suggestions that money was the motivation for moving to Liverpool and insisted that swapping Stamford Bridge for Anfield was purely a football decision.

Cole went on to describe Liverpool as a “massive club” and claimed the prospect of running out on a regular basis at the stadium that left such an indelible mark on him in 2005, when he was part of the Chelsea side defeated 1-0 in the Champions League semi-final second leg during an electric night at Anfield, was too good to turn down. Yet it is his remarks suggesting Liverpool represent a step up from Chelsea that will spark the most interest, particularly at Stamford Bridge.

“I tried to take everything out of the equation, take the financial and location side out and just thought in football terms,” Cole said, explaining how he arrived at his decision. “I thought about the semi-final of the Champions League in 2005 when I ran on to the field and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I was thinking about playing in that atmosphere every week and that swung it for