The man who had a position named after himself (despite it existing since the Dawn Of Time), Claude Makelele, looks set to end his time at Chelsea. The 34 year old is winding down, and has found his match time reduced as the club moved from three central midfielders to a 4-4-2, and John Obi Mikel, Frank Lampard, Michael Essen, Lassana Diarra and now Steve Sidwell all competing for positions.
Makelele’s English-based agent Jaime Ladjemi has tried to play down speculation, which in agent’s terms means he’s trying to drum up as much speculation as humanly possible,
“I have not heard anything from Paris Saint Germain or Villarreal,” Ladjemi told skysports.com.
“We don’t know what is going to happen (regarding the future).
“Claude has one year left on his contract and we will sit down after the FA Cup final and have negotiations with Chelsea.
“We will wait and see what happens when we talk to Chelsea.”
Makelele may not be the dominant force he once was, but he certainly can be useful to clubs who don’t have the luxury of getting rid of any aging player and replacing him with a superstar. If he’s willing to remain in the Premiership, Claude is probably just looking for a longer contract rather than a promise of a first team place so would it be so bad for a club like Tottenham, Aston Villa, Blackburn or even Portsmouth to take a shot at him – saving his experience and skills for big away matches when the side needs shoring up? We wouldn’t be surprised if Sam Allardyce wanted to bring him along to Newcastle and feed him whatever Gary Speed was eating at Bolton.