Sold out season

The vast majority of transfers in the close season have been worth under three million pounds or been loans – Charlton have brought in seven players for a total of three million.

To make matters worse for his rivals in the Premier League, Mourinho’s pockets appear to be bottomless.

The Portuguese can take his pick —Spanish defender Asier del Horno, French midfielder Lassana Diarra and one of English football’s most exciting forwards, Shaun Wright-Phillips, are in the bag at a total cost 32.5 million pounds ($54.4 million).

Michael Essien has yet to be prised from Olympique Lyon as the French club hold out for 45 million euros ($55.7 million) but not many hold out for ever when Chelsea come knocking.

After eating into Roman Abramovich’s fortune Mourinho now boasts of having two teams capable of retaining the title, which Chelsea won for the first time in 50 years last season.

“We have one of the best squads in Europe. I don’t know which team is the second one,” Mourinho said last week.

Even before the close season, Russian billionaire Abramovich had spent 300 million pounds in the two years since he took over the West London club. In June consultants Deloitte and Touche said the Chelsea effect was distorting the finances of Europe’s richest league and events in the last couple of months have underlined this.

Rumours that Chelsea are interested in a player hugely inflate his price. The selling club, knowing that money is no object for Mourinho, reject the bid and sit back to watch the offer climb. In a bidding battle, Chelsea can blow any other club out of the water. Full back del Horno was amazed the Londoners were prepared to pay 12 million euros ($14.85 million) to buy him from Athletic Bilbao.

“Chelsea are the only club who would pay this amount ofmoney for me,” the 24-year-old said. Wright-Phillips was Manchester City’s jewel and the club said repeatedly they were not prepared to sell him. Three days after a bid of 18 million pounds from Chelsea the 23-year-old winger was sold for 21 million, far and away the biggest close season purchase by an English club.

To ease congestion on the Chelsea team bus, strikers Mikael Forssell and Mateja Kezman, plus midfielder Scott Parker, were sold for a total of 14.8 million pounds ($26.4 million).

Mastery, first of England and then Europe, is Chelsea’s goal and having two dozen players of undisputed class is the first step to achieving this.

(Reuters)

THE SHUFFLE
Please welcome:
• Edgar Davids (Midfielder) (Inter Milan to Tottenham)
• Lassana Diarra (Midfielder) (Le Harve to Chelsea)
• Asier Del Horno (Defender) (Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea)
• Aleksander Hleb (Midfielder) (VfB Stuttgart to Arsenal)
• Park Ji-Sung (Midfielder) (PSV to Manchester United)
• Jose Reina (Goalkeeper) (Villarreal to Liverpool)
• Mohammed Sissoko (Midfielder) (Valencia to Liverpool)
• Antonio Barragan (Defender) (Sevilla to Liverpool)
• Emre Belozoglu (Midfielder) (Inter Milan to Newcastle United)

Checked out
• Patrick Kluivert (Forward) (Newcastle to Valencia)
• Kleberson (Midfielder) (Manchester United to Besiktas)
• Patrick Viera (Midfielder) (Arsenal to Juventus)
• Edu (Midfielder) (Arsenal to Valencia)

Change of address
• Shaun Wright-Phillips (Midfielder) (Manchester City to Chelsea)
• Craig Bellamy (Forward) (Newcastle United to Blackburn Rovers)
• Nicky Butt (Midfielder) (Newcastle to Birmingham City)
• Roy Carroll (Goalkeeper) (Manchester United to West Ham Utd)
• Andy Cole (Forward) (Fulham to Manchester City)El-Hadji Diouf (Forward) (Liverpool to Bolton
• Phil Neville (Midfielder) (Everton to Manchester United)
• Zenden (Midfielder) (Middlesbrough to Liverpool)

Prospective Relegations:
Crystal Palace, Norwich City, Southampton

Prospective Promotions:
Sunderland, Wigan Athletic, West Ham United

Odds for the title race:
Chelsea 4/6, Arsenal 10/3, Manchester United 7/2, Liverpool 14/1, Tottenham Hotspur 100/1

Odds for the wooden spoon:
Sunderland 4/7, West Ham United 8/13, Wigan Athletic 8/11, West Bromwich 10/11, Portsmouth 7/4

LOOKING BACK
Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool, Bolton Wanderers

FA Cup winners: Arsenal
League cup winners: Chelsea