Meireles – The Raul deal

Deadline Day is always a crazy one. Transfers come out of nowhere and some go through with just seconds to spare. Wednesday was no different.

With just 26 minutes until the transfer window closed Raul Meireles handed in a transfer request to his bosses at Anfield and by the time it shut he had signed for Chelsea.

The deal is rumoured to be worth around £12 million for Liverpool. The Blues are said to have offered £7 million and Yossi Benayoun, but after he made the switch to Arsenal it became a straight cash deal.

Meireles only arrived in Liverpool last season after an extremely successful spell at Porto which saw him win four consecutive league titles with the Portuguese club. He had a slow start to life in the Premiership but after Kenny Dalgleish arrived his game improved dramatically, scoring five goals in six games.

His performances for Liverpool last year won him the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year award, despite this Dalgleish saw no room for him in his new set up. With the introduction of Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing he was pushed out of the squad.

Many see Chelsea’s acquisition of the Portuguese international as a secondary option after their failure to capture Tottenham’s Luka Modric. Roman Abramovich is said to have stumped up £40 million to capture the Croatian but the Tottenham stood firm and held onto their midfielder.

Chelsea were desperate to get the Modric on their books but they will undoubtedly settle for Meireles. He isn’t what would be described as a “goal machine”, although when he does score they tend to be worldies, but he has the ability to link up well with other players.

A creative midfielder is what The Blues wanted and it is certainly what they have bought in the form of Meireles. His performances last year, especially toward the second half of the season, proved that he has the ability to link players up and provide goals for the team.

Not only will he be excited to arrive at Chelsea, everyone at Chelsea will be looking forward to him being in the set up. Alongside with fellow new-boy Juan Mata the London club have a decisively more creative midfield than last year.

It will be interesting to see how Andre Villas-Boas will set his side up for their next game against Sunderland with the introduction of these new players. Only time can tell whether or not he will shake things up completely and start with both Mata and Meireles. Either way both will feature heavily this season.

James Haggis