Filed under: Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Newcastle, Sunderland, Football, Transfer News
Having decided to pick Fernando Torres ahead of Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka on his first competitive game as Chelsea manager, Andre Villas-Boas now has a tricky choice to make in his second after goalkeeper Petr Cech was ruled out for up to a month.The Czech Republic international, a stalwart between the sticks since the Jose Mourinho era, sustained a knee injury in training and will therefore miss a series of games starting with Saturday's visit of West Bromwich.
Chelsea recruited Thibault Courtois in the summer but immediately loaned him out to Atletico Madrid, who needed a replacement for the Manchester United-bound David de Gea.
So that leaves Villas-Boas with either the little-used veteran Hilario or Ross Turnbull.
"Cech fell awkwardly with his weight on top of him. We expected much worse when we saw the incident," Villas-Boas explained. "It was the end of training, a normal training incident. We will make a full decision on the goalkeeper on Friday. We have two goalkeepers, one will start and the other on the bench,
Cech is also likely to miss a Premier League showdown with Manchester United next month and potentially Chelsea's opening Champions League game.
One man who is available is 18-year-old striker Romelu Lukaku, whose switch from Anderlecht has now been completed.
"I dreamed to play here since I was 10, thinking about shaking hands with all those players like John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba," the Belgian international declared.
Barton receives Black Cats Backing
Joey Barton, the Premier League's favourite pantomime villain, has received some unlikely praise ahead of his Newcastle side's north east derby with Sunderland at the weekend.
For Black Cats captain Lee Cattermole, who will go head to head with the midfielder in the Stadium of Light clash, believes the controversial former Manchester City man should be an England regular - a view constantly espoused by Barton himself of course.
"I find it frustrating with Joey Barton how he's not in the England squad," Cattermole told BBC Newcastle. "There's no doubting his ability, but they [the England management team] see him as some problem. I don't understand it, I think he would do well for the England side."
Barton has been capped just once for the England senior side, in a friendly with Spain in February 2007, while at City.
Vukcevic close to Rovers switch
Having been snubbed by Spain legend Raul, Blackburn are hopeful of persuading Montenegro midfielder Simon Vukcevic to come to Ewood Park.
The 25-year-old Sporting Lisbon player is understood to have undergone a medical with a view to joining David Goodwillie and Radosav Petrovic as new Rovers recruits.
Mansgerr Steve Kean told the Lancashire Telegraph: "Things have moved on. We have had bids accepted and we are close to three players now."
Kean also insisted he wasn't too disppointed not to get the veteran goal-grabber Raul.
"We said we'd be interested if he was available," he added. "We were waiting on something to come back from Schalke and then it got into the press that it had moved forward but we got a fax from Schalke on official headed notepaper to say he wasn't available at any price.
"That was the extent of it. We were excited about it, we had funds available to try to go after him but it never materialised, so that was disappointing, but that's one player."
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/08/18/football-digest-cech-blow-for-chelsea-barton-gets-unexpected-p/
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