Manchester City in for £5m Chelsea defender: Good move by Scolrari
by jakepjohnson on July 30th, 2008
| 399 words |
Manchester Ciy boss Mark Hughes has confirmed that he has made a move to bring Chelsea’s Israeli centre-back to Eastlands for a reported £5 million.
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Tal Ben Haim, who arrived at Stamford Bridge from Bolton in 2007, is keen to cement a more regular starting berth. Hughes has confirmed that he is interested in the player to compete with Micah Richards and Richard Dunne for the two centre-back places, while hoping to use Ben Haim’s European experience to help his team through their forthcoming UEFA Cup campaign:
We have made a bid. Discussions are taking place.
Ben Haim endured a frustrating season under Chelsea bosses Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant, as he clashed with Grant and failed to break through the central choices of John Terry, Alex and Ricardo Carvalho, making only 13 appearances for the Blues. He is thought to welcome any move from Manchester City, as he looks to move to a team in European this coming season.
The move would be one that would benefit Chelsea as well. They paid nothing for Ben Haim and would stand to gain £5 million, as well as get rid of a £40,000-a-week reserve defender. Scolari is most probably going to continue with the pairing of Terry and Carvalho in the centre, with Alex as backup. Ben Haim would continue to sit on the bench. The deal looks to benefit all three parties.
While on the subject of transfers, Hughes also stated that, as well as Ben Haim, he was looking at a number of other targets to strengthen his squad:
Hopefully that will be among a number of deals that we conclude before the transfer deadline.
Among those deals looks to be a move for a goalkeeper. With Joe Hart having such an excellent season, bar the 8-1 Middlesbrough debacle, Andreas Isaksson decided to leave the club for PSV Eindhoven, leaving only Kasper Schmeichel as competition:
We have two outstanding young keepers, but I think it’s important that we try to bring an experienced one in beside them as well.
We’ll continue to try to pursue that, but I don’t think there is much that is likely to happen in the next few days.
Stories of Hughes reuniting with ex-Blackburn keeper Brad Friedel were shattered by the American’s move to Aston Villa, whereas rumours about a move for Fulham’s Antti Niemi are begining to surface.
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Tagged Under: eastlands, Israel, mark hughes, Stamford Bridge, tal ben haim
john - July 30th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Joe Hart didnt actually play in the 8-1 middlesbrough game so it seems a bit harsh to blame him. Isaksson played and suprisingly he had a pretty good game despite the score line.
Rainman - July 30th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Joe Hart didn’t play in the 8-1 match!
As John says Isaksson played and he didn’t play to bad either, just a shame the rest of his team gave up trying.
Dong - July 30th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
As the boys have said - Joe Hart did have a great season, end of.
The 8-1 drubbing was more defensive errors on the teams part as a whole. I think Isaksson may have even got City’s Man of the Match that game, as he was the only one who turned up….(yes I know…despite the scoreline)
Captain Dunkirk - July 30th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Seem unnecessary to state that Joe didn’t play in the 1-8 but I will.
Chelski won’t make 5 mill profit on Ben Haim. You buy a player, you pay him 60,000 a week, you hardly play him, that costs money. I worked it out they made a 7 mill loss but what’s that to the Roman Empire
Dunkirk's illegitimate lovechild - July 30th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Well said Kirkers, clearly some of these muppets do not know how to do the maths. If we play the chap and have only paid £5mil for him that makes it a good deal for us. If Chelski buy him for nothing but splash £7mil on wages and don’t play him, does that make it good business?
Hmmm
colwell - July 30th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
chelsea have a real knack of signing half decent players for absolutley nothing and never playing them, like Sidwell, Pizzaro, Ben-Haim or sign quality players and turn them into shite, like Shevchenko
Nick - July 30th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Looked a bit dodgy for Chelsea but given a decent run of games he could form a decent partnership with Dunne.