There have been a few transfer rumours doing their rounds regarding Chelsea which is to be expected as the January transfer window draws ever closer. One of the more interesting reports concerns Vinicius Borges Breno.
Breno is a 21-year-old Brazilian centre back who plays for Bayern Munich, but has not featured much for the Bundeliga champions as he suffered a cruciate ligament injury during a loan spell with Nuremberg in the March of this year.
The defender has shown a lot of promise in the early stages of his career as the Brazilian U23 captain, so it was not too long before the former São Paulo man was attracting the attentions of the big European clubs like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Juventus and Fiorentina. Munich eventually won the race to sign Breno and paid the player’s minimum release clause of around £11 million – which is a substantial amount for an 18-year-old.
Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti was allegedly keen on the youngster prior to his injury and now that he is on the mend there is a renewed interest in his development.
Some critics suggest that the current Premier League and FA Cup double champions are lacking some depth in their defence following the departure of Ricardo Carvalho to Real Madrid in the summer, but do we really need another defender?
I would agree to an extent that perhaps we are a little light in the position at the moment, but when we have promising young players already like Jeffrey Bruma and Patrick van Aanholt (who is primarily a left back but can play centre half) the need does not seem so great.
Additionally, now that Jose Bosingwa has recovered from his long term injury it will free up Branislav Ivanovic to play centre back if called upon as Bosingwa can slot into his natural right back position.
I saw him play when the Bayern Munich reserve side toured India for Oliver Kahn’s farewell tour.
Against a very weak Indian club side, he had his problems against the pacy opposition forward and after being unable to deal with him for 60 minutes or so he stooped as low as kicking him off the ball.
Though one game certainly does not define his capabilities,I’d rather have Phil Jones over him any day.
P.S- A certain Thomas Müller was the “Outlandish” player on that occasion.
Thank you for the comment and your take on Breno, Nil.
I think Phil Jones would perhaps be a better option too and is of course homegrown. However, I have faith Bruma can make it and would hope to see him get more time.
Perhaps we could play Bruma in at least one of our remaining Champions League game and there’s always the chance of a kind draw in the FA Cup.