The hold up has been an issue of whether Chelsea would release Deco from his contract or not, an issue that has now been resolved with a satisfactory severance figure being agreed between us and his soon-to-be new club Fluminese (where he will link up with another of last seasons title winners, Belletti)
Looking back on our intel from earlier this year on players who were told to either find new clubs or we had the intention of selling, let's recap (original article here);
Hilario - Well, he's still here for now. The performance of Ross Turbull against Ajax and the injury to Petr Cech may well have persuaded the club to retain the veteran Portuguese stopper recently capped for the first time. The arrival of Matej Delac from Inter Zaprešic once he has turned 18 (20th of August) may well change the clubs mind with regards to their backup 'keepers however, with the talented youngster having already turned in several highly impressive performances at the U19's championship recently.
So far? Well, we’ve been wrong on this one! The club were and are prepared to let him go, but nothing has happened yet.
Carvalho - Having declared his desire to join former manager Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid and disclosing his agreement with the Chelsea power brokers that he be allowed to leave this summer, a deal which will take Ricardo Carvalho to the Bernabau seems a dead cert. The question for us to deal with will be who or what do get in return? The business between Chelsea and Real Madrid this summer is yet to truly begin.
So far? Factually speaking as Carvalho hasn’t left yet we can’t claim to be right – however with the deal imminent we won’t be wrong for long. This one’s been on the cards a long while.
Ballack - the release of the highly decorated German international was a surprise to some, however the desire of the club and manager Carlo Ancelotti to both rejuvenate the squad and also reduce the wage bill had this one earmarked as early as Christmas (again, like Deco).
So far? We were bang on the money.
Further departures to expect
Franco Di Santo - the lanky Argentine is likely to be loaned or sold to Bolton or Wigan, dependant on whether a fee can be agreed. Whilst the club aren’t ready to give up on him just yet time is fast running out for Franco.
Michael Mancienne - the languid defensive player has made public his private desires recently (oo-err) for a settled period playing consistently for a club, and whilst Wolves remain the favorites to bring him in there HAVE been overtures from Newcastle with regards to Mancienne, being seen as a replacement for the recently released Nicky Butt.
That’s all for the moment! We thought we’d keep you in the loop, and you won’t find many sites that re-visit their work and honestly appraise their accuracy – with Ballack gone and Deco and Carvalho to follow we’re reasonably confident you’ll be impressed with out info as released as far back as May 17th!);
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