Chelsea has contracted Barcelona’s mid-fielder Oriol Romeu for a four-year contract which will also include a buyback clause.
Romeu, who can play mid-field or central defence, has been tipped as the next big thing by many and he will be with the club for four years. Chelsea has had to spend five million euros to sign him on, but the buyback clause is an interesting one.
According to the deal, the player can be bought back by Barcelona at the end of one year for 10 million euros. There is also an option to buy him back for 15 million after two years of his contract.
In what is becoming an increasing trend, European clubs are not being averse to include this buy-back option in the contracts in order to protect the products of their youth academies.
In previous instances, forward Bojan Krkic, also from Barcelona, joined Italian club AS Roma for a sum of 12 million euros but Barca will need to buy him back at the end of two seasons for 13 million euros.
Romeu had started off his career playing for Espanyol and Barca’s B team last season. He is currently involved in the under-20 World Cup in Colombia and once that finishes, he will join Chelsea on his four-year contract.
Given the definite absence of Michael Essien, Romeu will allow Chelsea’s new boss Andre Villas-Boas to try things around in the centre.
Andre Villas-Boas has also said that there is a chance that Fernando Torres may not start off in the opening Chelsea line-up at the start of the season to allow the player to regain his form. Andre Villas-Boas did defend Torres after he continued to struggle on their Asian tour but also added that Chelsea will not field players on past form.
It could translate into Didier Drogba getting selected into the side as Andre Villas-Boas uses the 4-3-3 system in Chelsea’s first match of the season against Stoke City.
Since his £50million move from Liverpool to Chelsea, Torres has netted the ball only once and that would be worrying many of the Chelsea fans. Already comparisons have been made with £30m Ukrainian player Andriy Shevchenko, who failed to get going as well, and that cannot help the side too much.