Chelsea to Make Huge £45m January Bid for Franck Ribery

Ancelotti aims to bring in ‘Marquee’ Signing in forthcoming transfer window.

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Chelsea back in the hunt for Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery

Chelsea have made Franck Ribery their top transfer target and hope to sign the France international when the January window opens.

The Premier League club have been given the go-ahead to buy and sell in the next transfer window after the Court of Arbitration for Sport granted their request for a ’stay’ on the ban imposed by Fifa for being found guilty of inducing Gaël Kakuta to break his contract.
Chelsea deny any offence and are preparing to fight the ban but are also drawing up a list of targets should the punishment, which would prevent them from trading for two transfer windows, be confirmed next year.

Despite the public protestations of manager Carlo Ancelotti that he is happy with the squad he has, it is understood that, following discussions with sporting director Frank Arnesen, who is assuming responsibility for transfers, Chelsea have decided to try again to sign Ribery.
A bid of just over £40 million for the 26-year-old midfielder was rejected by Bayern Munich in the summer even though Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich involved himself in the negotiations.
At one stage Abramovich also offered Bayern the opportunity to sign Jose Bosingwa in the knowledge that the Portuguese right-back was highly rated by the German club.
At that time Bayern were adamant that Ribery was not for sale and ridiculed the bids that were made for him. They insisted he would not leave the club under any circumstances – a stance that has recently been reiterated by chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Bayern had hoped to pin Ribery down with a new contract – his present deal runs out in 2011 – but it seems likely that he will continue to resist, especially with other clubs interested. (Daily Telegraph)

Now that Chelsea have had their FIFA ban suspended, and more than likely rescinded for good anytime soon, Carlo Ancelotti is being linked with moves for a great many players. Some would argue that with the west London club sitting pretty atop of the Premier League that he wouldn’t need to think too long and hard over new additions but clearly the club will have more than a few top notch players going to the African Nations Cup in January and a player like Franck Ribery will always be welcomed at any top level club.

Given that the decision to suspend the ban gives them license to buy players in January the Stamford Bridge outfit may feel that it would make sense to bring in players in the up coming window just in case the FIFA ruling does indeed come into force, and therefore I can understand how Roman Abramovich may sanction a huge bid for the French international.

Also consider that by January Bayern Munich could be out of the race for any meaningful competition. They find themselves all the way down in eighth place in the Bundesliga and have a very slim chance of making it out of the Champions League group stages, needing nothing less than six points from their last two games to stand any chance of making it to the knock out stages.

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