Chelsea FC bid for Benfica Midfielder Nemanja Matic
According to Sky Sports, Benfica midfielder Nemanja Matic is the subject of a 20 million pound bid from Chelsea FC. Matic was once a member of the Blues before being used to lower the price of David Luiz’s transfer from the Portuguese club. If Chelsea FC does indeed pay a pretty penny to bring him back it would be a dramatic turnaround in his career fortunes.
Nemanja Matic is known as a box-to-box midfielder in the vein of Yaya Toure or Michael Ballack (or so I hope). Matic is very physically imposing at 6’4″ and has grown in to a world class player since his departure from Chelsea FC. He has become a prototype defensive midfielder under Benfica manager Jorge Jesus and he can become a great player for the Blues, one that they never envisioned when they sold him to the Portuguese club.
"“I still can’t say anything about this, let’s see what happens in the future, you have to ask the club and the president.”“If it’s good for the club and for me, we’ll talk. Let’s see what happens until 31 January.”-Nemanja MaticSource: A Bola (Sky Sports)"
It seems counter productive to spend that much money on a player that you traded away as an afterthought but it is hard to ignore the player that Matic has become. The argument could be made that he would not have developed in to the player he has if he were still at Chelsea FC because of the limited first team opportunities there. He was also playing under a great deal less pressure at Benfica than he would be trying to break in to the Chelsea FC first team. Either way, this solves Chelsea’s problem in central midfield and he could partner very well with Frank Lampard or John Obi Mikel.