Mourinho to bring Modric to Chelsea from Real Madrid?

When any manager leaves a club, there is always talk about which players they will take with them to their new club. David Moyes looks set to try and sign Fellaini at United; Pellegrini is reportedly interested in both Isco and Iturra for Man City, and sure enough Jose Mourinho is going to bring half of Real Madrid with him to Chelsea! We don’t normally put too much weight behind these random suggestions, but one that looks to be gathering some pace and that makes sense to all concerned parties is Luka Modric.

Modric was already targeted by Chelsea while he was still at Tottenham, but they rejected our approaches in favour of selling abroad – to one Jose Mourinho. However, Modric has struggled to cement his place at Real, and he was recently voted the worst signing of La Liga for 2012. It’s a far cry from his reputation at Spurs as their world class playmaker, but it seems Mourinho has not lost faith in the Croatian midfielder. Real have no great attachment to Modric, Mourinho wants him, and Chelsea want him. It all makes sense, and Mourinho will supposedly waste little time in launching a £30 million pound bid for him.

As to what role Modric would play for Chelsea, he would join the growing list of players that can adapt to any number of attacking roles for the good of the team. Mourinho would most likely play him as deep lying playmaker who can dictate play from a deeper position, allowing the more clinical players like Hazard and Mata do the real damage. Modric’s main strengths are not scoring himself, but more in setting the tempo for the game and being a fulcrum that brings the other attacking players together. He provides an option that we simply don’t have right now, with the exception of dropping Oscar to a much deeper role than he played all season, and that seems like a waste of Oscar’s ability.

All in all, I wouldn’t expect this particular move to happen too soon, as Mourinho will need to take stock at Chelsea before he agrees to any huge changes, but he can be comforted that few other teams are likely to stump up the cash needed to convince Madrid to sell. Transfer rumours are a dime a dozen at this time of year, but this is one transfer that sure does make a lot of sense. Over to you, Jose.