Chelsea have confirmed that they would not rule out a bid for Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery, who was questioned by French police last week as part of an investigation into allegations of illegal underage prostitution.
The £50 million-rated France winger is currently being interviewed as a witness after allegations that he paid a 17-year-old girl for sex.
Paying for sex is legal in France as long as the consenting party is an adult. Ribery’s lawyers claim the player was unaware the girl was a minor.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has ordered a crackdown on players’ behaviour to improve the image of the club after the publicity created by Ashley Cole’s extramarital affairs.
But Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti says that while the club will not rule out any player because of past behaviour, it will be impressed on any new signings this summer that they are expected to maintain a high standard once they join the club.
Ancelotti said: ‘We don’t have to look to the past of people. If we need to have new players, they will know how they have to behave when they are at Chelsea.’
Chelsea have long harboured ambitions to sign Ribery, although the Frenchman’s preference is for Real Madrid and the Spanish club are expected to complete the transfer this summer.
Chelsea took on Stoke on Sunday without suspended captain John Terry, although they were boosted by the return of Cole after two months out injured. In the wake of last weekend’s defeat at Tottenham, which may yet undermine their title hopes, Abramovich met Ancelotti at Chelsea’s training ground last Tuesday.
But the Russian owner did not address the players, as he did when the club went out of the Champions League against Inter Milan, which suggests that Abramovich is content with his Italian manager.
The Chelsea owner has been advised by consultant Guus Hiddink that what the club needs now is stability as it seeks the Double for the first time in its history.
Ancelotti said: ‘He (Abramovich) is very excited and he has great passion. He’s very involved in the squad. I enjoy talking with him because he has a lot of knowledge of football and he likes to speak about it. It was a personal conversation but we spoke about the tactics against Tottenham. He is competent to discuss such things.’
But Abramovich and Ancelotti have already decided they need to bring down the average age of the squad to inject fresh energy into the club for next season, with five members of the youth academy — Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta, Fabio Borini, Patrick van Aanholt and Nemanja Matic — to be promoted into the first-team squad.
Next season, Premier League teams will be limited to squads of 25, with at least eight players to have been at the club since the age of 18, meaning Chelsea will have to re-structure.
With Michael Ballack, 33 and Joe Cole, 29, out of contract in the summer and as yet having failed to agree new deals which involve taking a pay cut, Chelsea are making a concerted effort to cut costs after recording further losses of £44.4m in 2009.
Nicolas Anelka, 31, is also out of contract but is close to agreeing a new deal but Paulo Ferreira, 30, Deco, 32, and Juliano Belleti, 33, are all likely to depart. But Abramovich now has to decide whether to inject more money to secure another superstar transfer.
The £50 million-rated France winger is currently being interviewed as a witness after allegations that he paid a 17-year-old girl for sex.
Paying for sex is legal in France as long as the consenting party is an adult. Ribery’s lawyers claim the player was unaware the girl was a minor.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has ordered a crackdown on players’ behaviour to improve the image of the club after the publicity created by Ashley Cole’s extramarital affairs.
But Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti says that while the club will not rule out any player because of past behaviour, it will be impressed on any new signings this summer that they are expected to maintain a high standard once they join the club.
Ancelotti said: ‘We don’t have to look to the past of people. If we need to have new players, they will know how they have to behave when they are at Chelsea.’
Chelsea have long harboured ambitions to sign Ribery, although the Frenchman’s preference is for Real Madrid and the Spanish club are expected to complete the transfer this summer.
Chelsea took on Stoke on Sunday without suspended captain John Terry, although they were boosted by the return of Cole after two months out injured. In the wake of last weekend’s defeat at Tottenham, which may yet undermine their title hopes, Abramovich met Ancelotti at Chelsea’s training ground last Tuesday.
But the Russian owner did not address the players, as he did when the club went out of the Champions League against Inter Milan, which suggests that Abramovich is content with his Italian manager.
The Chelsea owner has been advised by consultant Guus Hiddink that what the club needs now is stability as it seeks the Double for the first time in its history.
Ancelotti said: ‘He (Abramovich) is very excited and he has great passion. He’s very involved in the squad. I enjoy talking with him because he has a lot of knowledge of football and he likes to speak about it. It was a personal conversation but we spoke about the tactics against Tottenham. He is competent to discuss such things.’
But Abramovich and Ancelotti have already decided they need to bring down the average age of the squad to inject fresh energy into the club for next season, with five members of the youth academy — Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta, Fabio Borini, Patrick van Aanholt and Nemanja Matic — to be promoted into the first-team squad.
Next season, Premier League teams will be limited to squads of 25, with at least eight players to have been at the club since the age of 18, meaning Chelsea will have to re-structure.
With Michael Ballack, 33 and Joe Cole, 29, out of contract in the summer and as yet having failed to agree new deals which involve taking a pay cut, Chelsea are making a concerted effort to cut costs after recording further losses of £44.4m in 2009.
Nicolas Anelka, 31, is also out of contract but is close to agreeing a new deal but Paulo Ferreira, 30, Deco, 32, and Juliano Belleti, 33, are all likely to depart. But Abramovich now has to decide whether to inject more money to secure another superstar transfer.
No comments:
Post a Comment