Rumours emerging from Turkey suggest that Galatasaray are preparing a £9million bid for Chelsea forward Salomon Kalou this summer.
Chelsea who recently spent £50million on striker Fernando Torres are thought to be planning a clearout at the end of the season to restructure their forward line and to free up money for manager Carlo Ancelotti to further strengthen his squad.
Kalou started his playing career with Ivorian club Mimosas (a club that many Ivorian greats have hailed from) in 2000, he spent three years there scoring an impressive 12 goals in 14 appearences. He was snapped up by Feyenoord in Holland in 2003 and farmed out on loan to their feeder club Excelsior immediately, he stayed there for the remainder of the 2002/2003 season.
The next term he was part of the Feyenoord squad and Kalou took to Dutch football with a good degree of success and in his 3 years with the club he scored 36 league goals in 67 games. His successes were capped off by winning the ‘Johan Cruijff Award’ in 2005, a reward given to the most promising player in Dutch football.
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In the Spring of 2006 Kalou signed for Chelsea in a deal worth £9million and he immediately became involved with the first team, after finding great success in Holland as a striker at Chelsea he became adept at playing on either wing, especially the left where he enjoys cutting inside and using his stronger right foot.
He has been an extremely useful member of the Chelsea squad and he rotates in and out of the side like many of their players, and he has at times found himself filling the role of impact player off the bench. Considering he has spent a lot of his time in England playing on the wing, his scoring record of 32 goals in 134 league games is pretty impressive.
Potentially with the signing of Fernando Torres and the desire of manager Carlo Ancelotti to reshuffle his forward line it may be increasingly difficult for the Ivorian to get as much playing time as he would like, and Roman Abramovich would ideally prefer to recoup some money if he is to open his cheque book again over the Summer.
Further to this, his current contract expires in 2012, and if he is pushed further away from the first team he may be unwilling to sign an extension meaning Chelsea need to sell the player sooner rather than later before he can move for nothing or at a dramatically cut price.
Soloman Kalou has been a great asset to Chelsea and I think he has provided some vital goals and assists during his time with the club, however I can’t help but feel that he hasn’t fulfilled his potential yet. He sometimes appears too lightweight to play though the middle in the Premier League and has therefore been used wisely on the wings, but his time at the club in my eyes is coming to an end.
If Manchester United win the title this year (which I believe they will), Chelsea will need to reshape their forward line to bring it back to Stamford Bridge, making Torres the focal point of their attack is potentially the key to that success. Moving Kalou on for £9million would be good business and will allow Chelsea to strengthen in other areas.
As for the player I think it would be a beneficial move too, he will start more games and possibly play in his favoured position, Turkey is not an easy country to adapt too but I believe Kalou has a good chance of being a success there.
Written by Joe T for the Transfer Tavern – view the original article here, and you can also follow Joe on Twitter @SoccerCityJoe
