Cahill Signs For Chelsea

[pfk]

Well that's half the month gone by now with this transfer.. can't say I'm surprised.  Will wish Cahill well he's been great for us and hasn't done anything wrong throughout his transfer saga.. We will definitely miss him for the rest of the season, I'm shuddering already at the thought of Big Zat & Wheater in defence.

[adbwfc]

We have lost probably our most gifted player to chelsea this window, we need serious investment. Winger and a striker.

If we just bring in ream and a loan I think we are planning for relegation already.

[Manny]

He's gone.

Gary Cahill has completed a move to Chelsea for an undisclosed fee, understood to be in the region of £7million.

The Blues had an offer for the 26-year-old accepted at the end of December and the move appeared to be stalling as the two parties failed to agree on personal terms.

However, Cahill was pulled out of training at Bolton's Euxton base on Thursday afternoon to hold talks with Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay, who had travelled north to speak to the player.

The England international was in line to play in Wanderers' game at Manchester United on Saturday, but withdrew from the squad late on Friday evening in order to travel to London and undergo a medical.

Cahill successfully completed a medical on Saturday morning and watched from the stands as his new teammates secured a 1-0 victory over Sunderland at Stamford Bridge later that day.

After more than two weeks of waiting, a deal has been completed and Cahill should be in contention for Chelsea's trip to Norwich City at the weekend.

Speaking about his transfer, Cahill admits the opportunity to compete for silverware every season was something he couldn't afford to turn down.

"Chelsea is a massive club, it is a club that looks to win trophies season in season out and it is a big opportunity for me to be a part of that," Cahill told ChelseaFC.com.

"Opportunities like this you can't turn down."

Cahill is thought to have signed a five-and-a-half year contract at Stamford Bridge and will wear the number 24 shirt.

In total, Cahill played 147 times for Bolton and scored 15 goals.

http://www.burndenaces.co.uk/news/cahill_completes_chelsea_switch_2162

[Woody-Cornish-Wanderer]

Ideally, I would like a CB to replace Cahill which I think is safe assume is Ream. A RM on loan until Chungy returns because Eagles has less consistency than a hangover dump, and a striker like Maynard who's available for 2.5M and has a bit of pace and a decent finish. Any left in the pot after that should go on another CB or LB, as Knight is dyer and Robbo isn't good enough to be 2nd choice.

[adbwfc]

Woody-Cornish-Wanderer - completely agree with that

[aarons2009]

I can't see OC getting all of the £7million, doesn't some of it have to go to Villa for a percentage on next sale thing?

[Manny]

They are the rumours. Whether they're true or not remains to be seen.

[Manny]

Cahill on Bolton

"This is the right move for me at the right time and I would like to thank everyone at Bolton because I've had a great four years at the football club.

"My spell with Wanderers has enabled me to break into the England squad, and I would particularly like to thank the fans for their support along the way. I always appreciated their backing."

http://www.bwfc.co.uk/page/General/0,,1004~2578854,00.html

[Bolton 58]

Sad to see you go, but good luck Gary. top defender, top player, top bloke

[DaveBWFC]

I can't see OC getting all of the £7million, doesn't some of it have to go to Villa for a percentage on next sale thing?

I think it was something like 10% of any profit we made on him. So Villa will get £200,000 from us.

Something like that anyway.

[Manny]

Good luck to him. Hopefully he won't get too many goals for Chelsea like the one that was voted 'Goal of the Year' for 2011 by you lot last week.

http://youtu.be/51OUHmdra3g

[Malcolm Everett]

Gary, if you are reading which I am sure you are (as if) - I just want to say you're a top bloke, you were a great professional at Bolton, always worked hard, put in some great performances, never moaned at how crap we were and that you were too good for us like some players would have done. Good luck for the rest of your career, I will always applaud you when you come back to the Reebok. Will enjoy watching you play for Chelsea, all the best fella.

[bwfcbob123]

All the best to Gary. Most players of his level would probably have handed in a transfer request by now, which proves how committed and loyal he was to the club. I will also applaud him next time he comes to the Reebok.

[Big_Sharps]

Thanks Gary for wasting 2 weeks of the Transfer Window for us.

[tomr]

How shíte is that when we sell a england international centre half for 2million more than we bought him for when he was just a reserve team player at villa....Only at Bolton would that happen

[Manny]

You could say the club messed up but then on the other hand, Chelsea were only the second club to make an offer for him during his time here. The first club was Arsenal, who offered less money in August.

The reason the club have messed up for me is their valuation. Cahill has never been worth the £17million that we were asking and they should have learned that when nobody was making any offers.

He had a reputation of a goalscoring defender, but he only really had one good season on that front. He scored 3 in his first full season with us, 3 last season and 2 this season. The reputation came when he scored 7 in 2009/10. If we could ever learn how to take a corner, even Zat Knight could get himself 2 or 3 a season.

Cahill has been a good player for us but the club should have been a bit more realistic on their valuation. You never know, we may have actually got a fee of around £12million for him. £12million would have been a 140% profit and could have done a hell of a lot more towards keeping us in the league than £7million.

[H. Pedersen]

I don't think our valuation was unrealistic.  Moreover, there's no reason to think that saying "we rate him at £17 million" would dissuade anyone from calling us up and offering the £12 million you mentioned.  If we said we wanted £12 million, they'd still lowball us.

No, I think the bigger issue was that we made it very clear that we were desperate to sell.  The fact that Coyle was constantly saying he could "play for any club in the world" made it painfully obvious that he wanted any club in the world to make us an offer.  This simply doesn't put us in a position of strength at the negotiating table.  Our wretched performance in 2011 also confirmed that there was no chance in hell that Cahill would sign a new contract, driving down his value even further.

I'm pretty sure that Gartside re-posting a foul-mouthed anti-Wenger tirade on Twitter didn't help matters either.

[Paul Comstive]

How shíte is that when we sell a england international centre half for 2million more than we bought him for when he was just a reserve team player at villa....Only at Bolton would that happen

£7m for a player when there are only 17 games left until the end of the season is a damn good price.

Of course it would've been better to have sold him for a bigger fee in the summer but no big fee came our way did it!?  What were the club supposed to do? 

Manny's right, the club's vaulation on him, in hindsight, was probably too high.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing though.

[xmiles]

I don't think Cahill was overpriced at £17m. Everton got £22m for Lescott. As HP says there was nothing to stop somebody making us a lower offer albeit more realistic than Wenger's. Even with Wenger negotiation rather than abuse from Gartside might have been more sensible. It would have helped if Coyle hadn't looked so desperate to sell.

I'm glad we got £7m but the failure to sell him last summer certainly hurt us badly.

[ShootNaka]

There goes the one semblance of consistency in our defence, all the best to a top player. Wheater has got some big shoes that he has no real chance of filling.

[Paul Comstive]

I think the constanty inclusion of Knight is more damaging than the loss of Cahill.

We need Alonso back asap so we can move Ricketts into the centre alongside Wheater, or alternatively, if Ream turns out to be half decent then hopefully he can be Wheater's partner.

Knight is the only player I've ever seen who becomes shorter when he jumps.

[ShootNaka]

I think the constanty inclusion of Knight is more damaging than the loss of Cahill.

We need Alonso back asap so we can move Ricketts into the centre alongside Wheater, or alternatively, if Ream turns out to be half decent then hopefully he can be Wheater's partner.

Knight is the only player I've ever seen who becomes shorter when he jumps.

How you can be that tall and scared of the ball is beyond me.