Mourinho blocks striker departure
Turkish club Trabzonspor have claimed that a deal had been agreed for Demba Ba before Jose Mourinho pulled the plug.
Trabzonspor reportedly agreed to sign the Senegalese forward for £7 million and it looked as though it was going to go through before the Chelsea manager put a stop to proceedings following Fernando Torres’ injury.
This would be the second time the out-of-favour striker has been denied a move away from Stamford Bridge as he was due to move to Arsenal in the summer before they signed Mesut Ozil which forced Mourinho into a rethink.
There seems to be a lot going on behind the scenes at Chelsea as Juan Mata is nearing the exit door whilst Mohamed Salah could be coming in from FC Basel, but perhaps the Blues may seek to use some of the Mata funds to go towards the purchase of a new forward this winter if one became available and Ba really does want to leave.
At the moment he is going nowhere unless he forces the issue and that’s a possibility as he knows he’ll be back on the bench or in the stands by the time Torres returns from injury.
Ba was signed as something of a stop-gap from Newcastle last January and breaking even on his sale wouldn’t be a bad deal – especially as it would mean clearing his significant wage off the books in the process.
The 28-year-old has played 36 games for Chelsea and has scored nine goals in all competitions in that time.