It looks like even Chelsea’s never ending bank balance has a limit when it comes to buying players from one of their biggest rivals as they’ve told Arsenal that they will not be going above their current ?16m bid for outcast Ashley Cole. This may cause some problems for all concerned as Arsenal are demanding that Chelsea match their previous outlays on English players and stump up around ?25m to take the England left back off their hands.

Problems indeed. Arsenal don’t want a moody player on their hands causing trouble in the ranks as he doesn’t want to be there, Ashley Cole obviously doesn’t want to be there and really seems to fancy the big payday of a move to the Russian firm and Chelsea have to make a stand on transfer fees that they pay out to their rivals as they don’t want to pay too much and then see Arsenal use the money to strengthen and hurt their own prospects.

Who blinks first? Arsenal have threatened to field Cole in their Champion’s League match against Dinamo Zagreb in a fortnight if Chelsea don’t cough up thereby making him ineligible for any other club if he does move after that. Chelsea have told them that they won’t be held to ransom for their previous transfer exuberance and as the only bidders for the player feel they are offering a reasonable deal.

It’s certainly an interesting one and we’ll get to see just who has the most bottle as it unfolds. Either way it’s not going to help the relationship between the two clubs as Chelsea find yet another Premiership foe to line up off the pitch againstand Arsenal find that even at the top of the food chain there is always someone bigger ready to try and gobble you up.

Arsenal?s defensive troubles look to be growing after Chelsea finally made their move for Ashley Cole, a whole year after the tapping up affair they were found guilty of beginning to unsettle the player.

While Arsenal have turned down the initial 16 million pound from the west Londoners, they are expected to agree a fee somewhere in the middle of the 16 million offered and the 25 million they will demand and finally bring an end to the most drawn out transfer process in recent English football history.

It has been no secret amongst footballing circles that Ashley Cole had a clause injected into his contract last summer after the initial clandestine meetings with Chelsea and that after another year playing for Arsenal that clause could help spring the left back and free him to make the move he desires.

Seeing as Cole missed the greater part of last season with injury and just made it back in time to join up with England?s doomed World Cup party (coincidence?) the extra season for Arsenal hasn?t made much difference and the club now look to finally rid themselves of the wantaway England star.

Following hot on the heels of Sol Campbell?s departure and Phillipe Senderos?s injury problems it leaves Arsene Wenger desperately short of defensive cover and the Cole transfer fee will only go someway to filling the gaps in the defence of last season?s Champion?s League finallists.

For the last few years I’ve railed against Chelsea and Roman Abramovich for their spendthrift ways and their ability to buy a mid-sized West London club the title two years on the trot when before they could have played another fifty years and never sniffed such glory but I always thought that they were a menace because they had such an unfair advantage all to themselves.

Hearing the rumours of Uncle Roman’s proposed deal to buy Didier Zokora, star of Ivory Coast’s World Cup campaign, and loan him out straight away to his old friend Alexandre Gaydamak who has bought control of Portsmouth really makes the veins on my forehead throb. We’ve seen him sign Alexei Smertin to send some money to his friends in Russia and then loan him out to other clubs in successive seasons and the same with Jiri Jarosik who has now seemingly collected enough cash and has moved on to Celtic to actually play a bit of football in a settled environment but I’m getting pretty tired of this old friends network skewing the Premiership even further.

Maybe the fans of Portsmouth, Charlton and Birmingham who benefit from having these players join them and don’t have to fork out cash for them in transfer fees think it’s a great idea but is there any football fan who hasn’t wondered at what is going on behind the scenes with these deals?

Roman Abramovich isn’t just a cash splashing village idiot from Siberia, he’s cold and calculating and this latest stunt with Zokora is proof of it. If Zokora goes for the money and joins Chelsea before being immediately farmed out then we’ll be able to draw some conclusions of his main motivation with his career, if not then “tu salut” Mr. Zokora, I’m sorry I doubted you. Roman’s main aim with the Zokora signing will be to disrupt the transfer plans of his nearest rivals in the only way he knows how: spend a lot of money to prevent them getting the players they want.

He’s done it before with Scott Parker and most famously with the ludicrous price he paid for bench warmer Shaun Wright Philips. Liverpool and Arsenal may have been interested in SWP at ?15m but at ?23m they realised the lack of value and backed out. Once again money ruled over everything else for both player and club. Manchester City must have been rubbing their hands with glee, ditto Charlton with Parker. Good old Roman sharing the cash around, isn’t he a great fella?

I’m sure the Glazers at Manchester United are seeing him for what he is though, Roman didn’t step in with a ?15m bid when they were selling Phil Neville so maybe he’s not quite as cash happy as everyone makes out. Same with Arsenal when they sold Patrick Vieira.

I’ve seen the future of English football and it isn’t pretty, the continued presence of the Russian billionaires makes it even worse and sadly for the fans, the Premiership chairmen with their noses in the trough, sucking up whatever Uncle Roman gives them, don’t even care.

So World Cup 2006 has begun and already we?ve seen some stellar individual performances, and aside from the peerless Juan Roman Riquelme, three other players have caught my eye. Those players? Arjen Robben, Didier Drogba and Michael Essien. Of course, you?ll immediately realise that these three are all Chelsea players, and that is what is most interesting about them. All three were outstanding in their respective countries opening games, which led me to think ? when was the last time they played so well for Chelsea?

Against Serbia and Montenegro (who were admittedly rather lacklustre) Robben produced a scintillating display of old-fashioned wing play, his direct, pacy running caused the Serbian back four all sorts of problems, and proved that you don?t need fancy tricks to beat a man (were you watching Cristiano Ronaldo?). The thing is, it?s been a long time since Robben performed like that for Chelsea regularly, and certainly did not approach such peaks in the season just gone. Freed from Mourinho?s tactical shackles, the Dutchman was allowed the freedom by Marco van Basten to play to his strengths.

For Chelsea, he is expected to work hard and to track back, and while most managers would like their players to work for the team in this way, sometimes you have to accept that this does not suit all players. No matter how hard Mourinho tries he will never make Robben into the kind of hard-working, defensively-minded player he clearly craves, and by expecting Robben to play this way he is stifling a player who, on his day, is one of the most exciting players in Europe.

For Holland, Robben is allowed to largely neglect any defensive duties and concentrate solely on attacking. Look at his goal against the Serbians ? when van Persie flicked the ball on Robben was Holland?s most advanced player, playing off the shoulder of the nearest centre back, and when he times his runs correctly his blistering pace means that he?s unlikely to be caught. Chelsea should use Robben in this way as well. With a team shot through with as much quality as theirs is they can afford to allow Robben the freedom to roam and to attack the way that Holland do. Certainly it would bring more flair to a side often criticised as dour and workmanlike throughout the course of last season.

Essien, it seems, has a similar problem to Robben. It would appear Mourinho regards the Ghanian as an alternative ? and successor ? to Claude Makelele. Now, while Essien is undoubtedly an excellent central midfielder, a Makelele he is not. The Frenchman?s forte is staying back, breaking down attacks and keeping possession with simple short passes. Essien is much more attack-minded than that. He produced a powerhouse performance for Ghana, overpowering an Italy midfield that was hardly short of quality itself. Essien?s barnstorming forward runs were reminiscent of his Lyon days and the form that earned him that ?24m pound move to England.

It is unfortunate that if you mention Essien to any English football fan and they will probably be reminded of a couple of infamous fouls he committed in his first season rather than any memorable performances, yet Essien on Monday looked a different player to the man who has flattered to deceive thus far in his Chelsea career, and again we must question why, and again it brings us back to Mourinho?s tactics.

Essien, once memorably described as ?a bundle of muscles? is a real box-to-box midfielder and the possessor of a very decent shot, yet the tactical rigidity of Chelsea?s system stymies his best qualities. He is strong, quick and has the stamina to run all day, yet for Chelsea his forays into the opposition penalty box are rare (perhaps for the fear that he and Lampard will cancel one another out, in the way that Gerrard and Lampard do for England), but to use Essien simply as a Makelele-style holding player negates many of his best qualities ? something that Paul Le Guen understood, but Mourinho does not seem to.

The much-maligned Didier Drogba also showed against Argentina what a top-class striker he can be when he is really motivated. Clearly, he is desperate to do well for his country, and appears to thrive on the responsibility the Ivory Coast entrusts in him. For the Ivory Coast he is the captain and the main goal-threat, for Chelsea he is used merely as a battering ram to outmuscle physically weaker sides. For the Ivory Coast he is he focal point of their attacks, for Chelsea this is not always the case.

This is unfortunate for Drogba, who is unlikely ever to be ?the main man? at Chelsea, especially not now Andrei Shevchenko has been signed. Although having said that, the Ukrainians? signing could prove a boon to Drogba, as he seems to play better when paired with another up front (as he was for Marseille and is for the Ivory Coast) rather than as a lone front man. Who knows, next season, with Shevchenko for support, Chelsea might finally see the best of a player unfairly compared to Emile Heskey.

Chelsea have given Eidur Gudjohnsen permission to travel to Barcelona to open talks with the European champions on a possible ?8m deal. Gudjohnsen has been linked in the past few months to English clubs Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur but unsurprisingly his number one target is Barcelona who have enthralled all of European football this season with their attacking brand of football.

Gudjohnsen will be offered a three year deal at the Nou Camp as Barcelona complete their mission to replace Henrik Larsson who is returning to Sweden to play for Helsingborgs after playing a pivotal role in Barcelona’s European Cup final comeback against Arsenal after coming on as a second half substitute.

Despite being at Chelsea for six years, Gudjohnsen never really established himself as a first team regular and with chances limited even further over the past year after Chelsea signed Dider Drogba and Hernan Crespo returned from a loan spell at AC Milan, the Icelandic star now feels that it is better for his career to leave Stamford Bridge for pastures new and with Barcelona interested it seems to have been a wise choice.

Real Madrid have made it clear that Chelsea will have to wait until after their presedential elections before finding out if Roberto Carlos will be made available for transfer.

The 33 year old has had a disappointing couple of seasons for Madrid but still has massive pulling power and would be readily accepted into the growing Galactico club at Stamford Bridge.

Real vice-president Emilio Butragueno told The Sun:

“We believe it would be better not to decide anything until after the elections on July 2. It’s logical the next president and his advisors should decide if they want Roberto. We’ll see how they feel about him and Chelsea and a definite decision will be taken on his future.”

While no transfer fee coming out of Stamford Bridge should shock or surprise us these days, the news that Chelsea have agreed a deal with both Lynn Oslo and Manchester United to resolve the transfer dispute over 19 year old Norwegian John Obi Mikel should send some shocked looks if not stifled giggles around football circles.

The Glazer family will be laughing all the way to the bank with the ?12m they have collected from Roman Abramovich’s pocket for a player who never even pulled on a Manchester United shirt while Lynn Oslo are also winners with a ?4m jackpot for a player they feared losing for nothing.

One has to wonder where Chelsea are able to derive value from such a transfer on a player who isn’t even out of his teens and has only played a short time in the relatively uncompetitive Norwegian league though.

While the Londoners can pay out massive sums such as this to placate clubs they’ve poached players from (and they DID poach Mikel, no matter which way you cut it), is there any point in the other clubs turning up when the World Cup madness is over and the Premiership season starts again in August. Manchester United are Chelsea’s biggest rivals and if even they can be bought off with a quick backhander over a player’s transfer then what hope have clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur got?

What a joke.

Despite having the biggest international tournament of his career approaching for England, Frank Lampard has been speaking to the Spanish press about his situation at Chelsea and the rumoured interest in him from European champions Barcelona.

Lampard has told Spanish daily paper Marca that while he is happy at Chelsea, playing for Barcelona would be “a dream”.

“It would be a dream to go to Barcelona but I am happy at Chelsea. They have offered to renew my contract which is something to be proud about,” he told Marca.

“Chelsea are reinforcing and are going to be stronger still and we will be capable of winning things again.”

Frank Lampard’s Spanish fiancee, model Elen Rives, originally comes from Barcelona so there has been heightened speculation in recent weeks as to whether he would follow England compatriot David Beckham to the sun and sangria lifestyle in Spain.

Feyenoord striker Salomon Kalou will overcome his disappointment at not getting fast track citizenship in time to play for Holland at the World Cup finals by signing a five year deal with Chelsea this week.

The Ivory Coast born player, brother of Ivory Coast star Bonaventure Kalou, has been a revelation for Feyenoord this season and the club reluctantly agreed to let him travel to London for talks with Chelsea after opening negotiations with the club on Thursday.

The 20 year old then had talks with both Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and manager Jose Mourinho and is now expected to complete the move next week after the Chelsea and Feyenoord agree a transfer fee.

Andriy Shevchenko is expected to make a decision on his club future later today after meeting with AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani to discuss the club’s offer of a new contract to run until 2011.

Shevchenko has spent seven years at the San Siro in the black and red of Milan and still holds the club and their fans in very high regard. What will be a deciding factor is that Shevchenko is now 29 years old and this contract will be his last at the very highest level so he will have to make a final decision based on many factors.

Chelsea are long time admirers of the Ukraine hitman and as Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and Shevchenko are close personal friends it wouldn’t take a huge leap of imagination to see him decide to head for West London if today’s meeting with the Milan administration doesn’t lead to a successful outcome.

Having already secured the services of Germany captain Michael Ballack for next season, Chelsea chief executive can afford to be optimistic as he moves for another high profile European superstar as the pulling power of the glitz and glamour of London, coupled with the mountains of roubles at Mr. Abramovich’s disposal, makes Chelsea a very attractive proposition for any player.