Advantage Chelsea In Chase For Edinson Cavani

Edinson Cavani is one the most sought after strikers in the world. Everyone were surprised when he signed for PSG in 2013 from Napoli where he had a wonderful season. A move to the French league was least expected as a player of that calibre would jump at the chance of playing regularly in EPL or La Liga. Almost all top clubs were on the lookout for him, but big spending PSG had the last laugh. He had made a wise decision and reaped success both in the domestic league and Champions league. Even though PSG had a successful run in the Champions league and Cavani was very much at the heart if it, he has never been happy at the club. It is next to impossible to shrug off competition from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in being the main striker of the team. As a result, Cavani was often asked to play out of position and out wide for the team. This is a scenario that frustrates any star striker. This has happened with Rooney too and we all know what all Moyes had to offer to stop him from leaving the club.

This situation at Parc des Princes dressing room has turned out to be blessing in disguise for the other big clubs. Any club will have to pay through their nose to get the versatile attacker’s signature. It seems like Chelsea and Manchester United are the front runners in the race to sign him.

With the financial fair play regulations effective more than ever. It is a major hindrance for such big bucks signings. Chelsea have spent around £85 million as of now. But this doesn’t bother them as they have accumulated roughly £75 million by selling some top stars. So their net spending is only below £11 million.

When you look at Manchester United’s transfer dealings they have bought players like Ander Herrera, Vanja Milinković and Luke Shaw for a ball park figure of £56 million. Their transfer earnings during the transfer window till now approximates to £8 million. This leaves them with a net transfer spending spree of just below £50 million. This is going to affect them badly when it comes down to a war for spending big. Chelsea are going to go in with all guns blazing to win the battle and make a very big step towards winning the league and Abramovich is sure going to support Mourinho in that as he has done until now.

But when you look at the current team and transfers completed until now you will see that if Cavani makes a move to Stamford Bridge, he is going to face the same problem he faced in Paris. In this case it is Costa who is going to cause problem for Cavani in cementing a place in his preferred position. Though Mourinho is not known to prefer two strikers up front, it is a possibility if he thinks of changing his defence oriented game to a more attacking one. Otherwise he will have to fight it out with Costa and Torres for the lone striker role.

With Louis Van Gaal as the manager and their new signings especially Herrera outperforming expectations, the Manchester club will surely bounce back from their setback last season. But with no Champions League to lure him, the red devils are going to find it tough.