SWP, Essien and Benfica

By BlueBlood
July 16 2005

Despite reports in this morning's press that SWP is not interested in coming to Chelsea, it has just been announced that SWP DOES want to talk to Chelsea.

This afternoon, SWP requested permission from the Man City management and board to officially talk to Chelsea, despite City already refusing a first Chelsea bid of £20 million.

City have said that they want at least £23 million bid before they would even entertain giving permission for SWP and Chelsea to meet. Stuart Pearce said yesterday that SWP was not interested in leaving City and that SWP showed more interest in the time for the kick off at Tranmere in City's friendly last night. Incidentally a fixture that City lost 1-0.

It just goes to show that you read one thing in your morning paper and less than 24 hours later the whole episode is turned on its head. No doubt now SWP will pull out of City's tour to Thailand as another player, Michael Essien has reportedly said that he will leave Lyon's tour of Korea at the drop of a hat once Chelsea are ready to complete Essien's transfer, no doubt in time for Chelsea's three match tour of the U.S which starts next week.

Before that Chelsea head to Portugal for a friendly against the Portuguese champions Benfica in Lisbon tomorrow night. The game is being shown live on Chelsea TV with a kick off time of 8pm.

News, scores will be available on the message board tomorrow.