Chelsea target Adam Johnson if appeal succeeds
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Chelsea target Adam Johnson if appeal succeeds
Chelsea will attempt to sign Adam Johnson from Middlesbrough next summer if they succeed in their appeal against Fifa’s transfer ban.
The 22-year-old winger is out of contract at the end of the season and has rejected several offers of an extension, fuelling fears at Middlesbrough that he will seek to walk away next summer.
Chelsea would have to pay a transfer fee set by a tribunal because Johnson is under the age of 24, but that is the least of their problems. The club are banned from signing new players until January 2011 after being found guilty by Fifa’s Dispute Resolution Chamber of inducing Gaël Kakuta, a teenage French winger, to breach his contract with Lens. Chelsea have been monitoring Johnson for some time because he fits their preferred profile as a young English player who can be secured relatively cheaply.
The boyhood Old Trafford fan has also been tracked by Fergie for well over a year. He sees the left-sided midfielder, who can also play on the right, as a possible long-term replacement for Ryan Giggs
Carlo Ancelotti reignited his row with José Mourinho yesterday by sarcastically implying that his predecessor as Chelsea manager considers himself Jesus. “I don’t know ‘the Special One’,” Ancelotti said. “If he thinks he is Jesus, I am certainly not one of his disciples.”