Chelsea Transfer News: Willian Is One Midfielder Too Many for Blues' Attack

Chelsea might want to make sure they've got a big enough substitutes bench to fit all of their midfielders.

Jose Mourinho all but confirmed Willian will be a Chelsea player by the time the transfer window closes on September 2, according to Sky Sports:

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I don't like to speak before time because football can be crazy. I know what the player wants, so in this moment we cannot hide. That is a possibility.

You have to do the medical before, but the best thing to do is to do the medical in secret. If the player is fine, you can sign him. If the player is not fine you don't destroy his career.

Every one of us managers will say we are happy with our squad, but we are always unhappy. We always want something more, something of more quality and never close the door to the possibility of adding more quality.

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BBC Sport reported the transfer would be worth £30 million, and a work permit would be the only thing standing in the way:

If that's the only potential road block, it would be hard to think that Chelsea would be making this kind of big-money move and still believe there's the chance that a work permit could prevent it from happening. It seems a sure thing now that Willian will call Stamford Bridge home.

A year or two ago, the Brazilian midfielder would have been a great purchase for Chelsea. His speed out wide and creativity would have offered the club a different dimension in the attack. There's little doubt he would have had a role to play in the midfield.

Willian instead chose to move to Anzhi Makhachkala, and Chelsea moved on to other targets.

After the additions of Oscar, Eden Hazard and Andre Schurrle in 2012 and 2013, it's hard to see where Willian fits in. You've also got Kevin de Bruyne vying for a first-team spot and looking great so far in the preseason and early stages of the 2013/14 Premier League campaign, while Lucas Piazon and Marko Marin are out on season-long loans.

It's one thing to make sure you've got enough depth to compete on multiple fronts. It's another to stockpile so many players that you create an unworkable logjam in your squad.

The key is striking that balance between having enough talented players but not too many so that you'll end up having disgruntled stars who want more first-team football.

Unless Mourinho has more plans in mind, he's tipped the scales firmly toward the latter of those two scenarios.

Surely the purchase of Willian will only cause more dominoes to fall at Chelsea.

Maybe Victor Moses is the odd man out? Juan Mata could be off this summer to pave the way for Wayne Rooney, but the Chelsea manager said in the Sky Sports report that he had no intention of selling the Spanish playmaker this summer. De Bruyne could be loaned out for another year, but what do you do when that loan is over? You'd still have to work in a lot of players for not so many open positions.

If Mourinho wanted to add another midfielder, it would have made more sense to go after somebody who can offer something on the defensive end. Marco van Ginkel will be a great box-to-box central midfielder. He isn't a viable defensive midfielder, though. That leaves pretty much John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien as the only pure central defensive midfielders, with David Luiz as an occasional option.

Instead, he opted for yet another central attacking midfielder.

After such a productive summer in the transfer market, it's hard to see where the Blues got demonstrably better by adding Willian.