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Branislav Ivanovic had a great night in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago for two reasons! He scored the winner that won the Europa League trophy for Chelsea and he has caught the attention of big spending Monaco, backed by a wealthy owner who is prepared to pay top dollar to sign the Serbian this summer.
Now straight away when I read the report, I though to myself “No chance!”. But on thinking about it, I am not so sure and I will explain why.
We all know that Jose Mourinho likes to work with a solid base at the back of all his teams. You only have to remember those first two seasons in charge from 2004/2006 and the fantastic defensive record we had that played a huge part in our back to back title winning seasons.
Now, as per reports last week, it appears that Mourinho intends to revert Ivanovic back to right back as part of his own defensive set up and that could be a problem for the player himself.
Not so long ago, we heard from his agent claiming that Ivanovic wants to play through the middle as a centre back as that is his natural position. He had played at full back to help the manager at the time but his intentions are to play where he feels most comfortable.
This season, for the most part, Ivanovic has been able to play there because of injury to John Terry and Gary Cahill in addition to the signing of Cesar Azpilicueta.
He has played well if you take the season as a whole, but has made defensive mistakes that has cost Chelsea at times. He more than made up for that with the winner in the last minute in Amsterdam.
I just wonder where Mourinho and the player will stand on a potential enquiry and offer for Ivanovic. I would like to keep him at our club as I believe he will continue to get better and improve working with Jose, but we have to be realistic depending on the offer made to Chelsea AND Ivanovic by Monaco’s wealthy owner.
What do you think? Should Chelsea ignore any approach for him from Monaco? Do you believe he has an important part to play for Jose Mourinho?
Carefree & KTBFFH!
