Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho is set to sell French midfielder Lassana Diarra and wants to replace him with Chelsea’s Michael Essien to ‘beef up’ his midfield, according to reports in the Daily Express today.
It is not the first time the 28-year-old has been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge this summer as a part-exchange deal for Wesley Sneijder had previously been rumoured and may do again after Sneijder hinted he may be willing to leave the San Siro after saying ‘only god will decide where my future lies’ recently. Essien has also been reported as a target for AC Milan.
The player has been quick to deny he’s going anywhere when asked recently, but are the Ghanaians days numbered at Stamford Bridge?
There’s no denying that Essien has just come off the back of a poor season for Chelsea and many are worried if he will get over his injury problems as he has not looked the same since the operation on his knee back in 2010, which is a worry.
I’m a big fan of Essien and would say that when he was fit, he was the best box-to-box midfielder in the world and could be again. However, hoping that he can get back to his best could be more of a risk than selling him whilst his stock is still high and using the money to go towards the sort of player we’re in need of, like a Luka Modric or even a Sneijder.
The other problem we may face next season if we were to keep him is where to play him. In my opinion, I think Essien is perhaps a little wasted in the defensive midfield position and although better defensively, he doesn’t have as good a passing range of a Jon Obi Mikel or Josh McEachran, who can both knock the ball around comfortably in the deep midfield areas.
Essien doesn’t score or create enough to play in a more attacking role, like Frank Lampard, who has his injury problems himself, but will get you goals and assists from midfield. The other player standing between Essien and a place in the starting XI is Ramires, who has improved since joining the club, has a great engine and will be able to run box-to-box all day.
Also, Chelsea may want to add more of a creative influence to their midfield this summer and many hope that McEachran will have more of a role to play next season as he continues his development, so inevitably someone would have to make way for this to happen, could it be Essien?
I would love for Essien to prove me wrong as there was a time when he was rated as one of the best players on Chelsea’s books, but he has had his injury problems and the club are looking to rebuild this summer so things will change, but as fans we will have to just wait and see what unfolds.
Essien is not for sale period! Lampard is!
Essien is a beast of a player and must not be sold , he is just in bad form this year otherwise is one of the best midfielder in football, those who sing appreciation song for mikel only see his passing abilities , time and time again he need to be covered by essien or ramires even if he plays as Defensive midfielder , he is a pedestrian and does not provide any protection for back 4 , still I want us to keep both coz I believe mikel can shine in a AM or playmaker role where his responsibility is to provide those juicy passes , he is capable of and I must say it should be lampard who must be benched and we shall give start to young josh else loan him to Bolton….
i think most people dont know what they are talking about,how can anyone say sell lampard and keep essien.how many did he score or assist compared to lampard.the problem is that essien,ramires dont know how to score or assist.”that he makes late runs”why cant essien make those runs.the fact is when essien has played a ful season weve won only 1 premier 2005.pathetic. essien slows down player i prefer mikel .he was there when were winning 7 _1 ,8 0.lastly a club has to have players who understand its history to teach new comers what is expected off them those are the likes of lamps terry.sell malouda selfish/in neymar ,anelka out of ideas/in sanchez ,esien/hazard. bosingwa,/de bryune.no need for defensive midfielder ramires mikel are enough.defenders too.k
Are these guys really Chelsea fans, I mean the guys who write these absolute trash? Even Man Utd don’t sell players who show committment to the team,how much more the Blues? We’re a better family.That’s the reality.We sold Ballack and we saw what happened to us.If we put Essien on the market now, Real,Utd,AC and other top team will buy him in no time and he will come to hunt us the Champ League,so stop this trash and let those who have something better to write about Chelsea to so.I won’t even say our players lost form but they lost the pyschological push which the choach should have provided.I agree with other Chelsea fans that we need some creative players in the middle. Josh should also be allowed to play in his more creative and advanced role if even it means benching Lamp.
Alex You are great fan of Chelsea,the only problem I see with Chelsea is pyschological boost.This Carlos could not provide @ a time they needed it most.After all Guuis Hindink did it after the failure of Scolari.We must all learn from our mistake, we sold Ballack & Deco & it became a problem for chelsea.I am very sure some of these people writing are not Chelsea fan, Godless you Alex.