Chelsea Transfer News: Major Deals Rumoured for Jose Mourinho January Raid

Chelsea will have to fend off interest from Manchester United if they are to land Everton full-back Seamus Coleman, reports suggest. 

According to Steve Millar of the Daily Star (h/t Bruce Archer of the Daily Star) Louis van Gaal is keen on bringing Coleman to Old Trafford and is willing to part with up to £25 million for the Republic of Ireland international. As noted by Archer, Chelsea have also held a long-standing interest in the player.

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If there’s one area of Jose Mourinho's star-studded squad that is a little short, it is arguably the full-back berths. Branislav Ivanovic, Cesar Azpilicueta and Filipe Luis are all excellent players, but should one of them fall foul of injury, suddenly the Blues have little depth in those positions. With that in mind, Mourinho's pursuit is somewhat understandable.

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Indeed, when you look at the characteristics of Coleman and the principles valued by Mourinho, it makes a lot of sense. The 26-year-old is a player that’s unrelentingly industrious in his forays up and down the right flank, his defensive work is diligent and his ability to push forward and make an impact in attacking areas of the field is bespoke for a full-back.

Squawka Football noted his patent for finding the back of the net earlier in the season:

Unfortunately for the player, on the back of an exceptional 2013/14 campaign, this season hasn't seen him at his best, as injuries have sapped any momentum. As noted here by Everton writer Chris Smith, Coleman’s recent display against Stoke City was probably his worst ever in a blue shirt:

But there’s little doubt he’s a class player that would slot seamlessly into the Chelsea way of playing. But with Everton having tied down their man to a new long-term deal ahead of the current campaign, any transfer looks unlikely until the summer, if at all.

If Chelsea are to do any January business , the most likely acquisitions will be younger, less pricey players. And one talent who fits into this category is Croatian forward Andrej Kramaric. The 23-year-old currently plays for Rijeka in the Croatian Prva HNL, but he's been mightily impressive over the course of the last two seasons, prompting reported interest from the Blues.

Indeed, he recently won the award for the domestic league’s top player, per CroatiaWeek:

According to Hrvoje Tironi of Goal.com, Chelsea are set to table a £7.8 million bid for the player, who has scored 27 goals in 26 matches in all competitions so far this season. Bleacher Report’s Croatian football expert Aleksandar Holiga had this to say about Kramaric earlier in the season:

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While he obviously is a lethal finisher, he is not what you would call a “typical” striker. Many of those goals came in games in which he played behind the centre-forward in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1 formation. He is the kind of player who likes to drop back to take the ball, pull wide to create space for others or roam between the lines and run channels.

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The lure of Stamford Bridge will understandably be tough for a young player like Kramaric to turn down, but you suspect he would initially be sent out on loan, such is the stratospheric standard of player Chelsea currently boast in their attacking areas. With that in mind, a move to another club could well be a better option for the Croatian international.

It's something the player's father touched upon recently per T Portal (h/t Goal's Stephen Darwin)

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They [Chelsea] are really persistent. The thing we disagree over is Andrej's loan over the next six months. The question is where would he go on loan? We have no guarantee that he would return to Chelsea when the loan ends.

The financial conditions wouldn't be the same if Kramaric is with the Chelsea first team or somewhere on loan. True, it's a great club, but I'm not sure if it's the right way to go.

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At the moment, Kramaric is scoring goals for fun, and in order to preserve that golden touch, he needs to continue playing games on a regular basis. At Chelsea, he isn't going to get that quite yet, so even if the Blues do end up signing him, a loan move—or even a move to a club of lesser standing—would surely be the most likely course of action for the player.