Today Chelsea officially confirmed the signing of Senegalese forward Demba Ba on a three-and-a-half year deal at Stamford Bridge for an undisclosed fee (£7m release fee) and he will be eligible to play against Southampton in the FA Cup as well as the Capital One cup semi-final v Swansea, but is cup-tied for the Europa League.
The 27-year-old will don the number 29 shirt and will hope to continue the fine goal-scoring form he enjoyed at both Newcastle and West Ham during his time at Chelsea. He’s currently one of the Premier League’s top scorers with 13 goals.
Ba was quoted on the club’s official website:
“It feels good to be here, I’m very happy and very proud.
“It was important for me, and for Newcastle, to get my future sorted and now we can move on. Now they have the whole month to buy someone and for me as well, the sooner the better. Now I am here I just need to get settled in.
“When the club who won the Champions League wants you, the decision is very easy. This club is massive and that’s something that helped the decision a lot. It was not a hard one.”
Whilst Rafael Benitez has praised the signing and the ‘different options’ he has available now we have a player to content with the divisive and persistently frustrating Fernando Torres.
The interim manager said:
“He’s a good player and has proven he can score goals in the Premier League,’ said the Spaniard. ‘He has experience and we were looking for a player who could play right now as we have a game every three days.
“We couldn’t be waiting and I believe he’s the type of player who can do well in the Premier League from the first day.
“We have to be sure we have enough options in attack. We now have a different option with a player who can maybe play with Fernando but also on his own, it’s a different option for me as a manager which is good.
“He can score goals, hold the ball, pass, has good movement and is good in the air; as a striker he can do everything you are looking for. He trained today, he is fine and he has a chance of playing tomorrow.
“I had a conversation with him this morning and we were talking about what I am expecting from him.
“We needed a striker right now, we’ve signed a good one, we will see with the rest of the squad but we are happy with the first signing.”
Hopefully he will hit the ground running and there will be many fans that will want to see their first glimpse of Ba in a Chelsea shirt when we play Southampton in the FA Cup third round tomorrow…especially after witnessing Torres’ efforts against lowly QPR in midweek.
What are your thoughts on our new signing and do you think he should be in the line-up to play the Saints tomorrow? Have your say in the comments section below
ba should definately play tommorrow.
Chelsea need a fast striker like callejon but BA also will be a good option