Chelsea: How They Masterfully Hijacked Tottenham’s Willian Transfer

Hijacking a transfer is when things get interesting. Chelsea hijacking Tottenham’s transfer of Willian was amazing. 

Back when Jose Mourinho was managing Chelsea, he completely hijacked the transfer of Willian to Tottenham, with the help of Roman Abramovic of course. Chelsea did it in a world-class manner. Chelsea and Tottenham have been rivals for a long time.

Both teams being from London, there has been some bad blood between the two. Chelsea had one motive to hijack Willan’s transfer because Tottenham refused to sell Luka Modric to Chelsea 2 years earlier. Personal vendettas have been held hence the reason transfers between the two clubs never happen.

At the time of Willian’s transfer

At the time, Willian was with the Russian club named Anzhi. He was going to leave and it was between Liverpool and Tottenham. Liverpool has bid £27.5 million and Tottenham bid £30 million. Anzhi accepted Tottenham’s bid which would send Willian to White Hart Lane. It was reported that a 5-year deal had not been signed yet and Tottenham had to announce the medical with Willian. This gave the opportunity for Chelsea to jump in and snag Willian.

At the last minute, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich made a quick call to Anzhi owner Suleyman Kerimov. The two are pretty good friends as they are both Russian billionaires. Abramovic made a bid of £32 million and Kerimov accepted immediately.

The Chelsea owner finessed everyone. Just like that Willian was on his way to Stamford Bridge. Jose Mourinho later said, Tottenham, had paid the price for not doing the medical “in secret”. In soccer, medicals are usually done in secret so transfer hijackings don’t happen. Of course, Tottenham was angry.

Tottenham manager, Andre Villas-Boas was furious as Willian had been a target for quite some time. He wanted Willian to be Gareth Bale‘s replacement who was off to Real Madrid. Back in January of 2013, Tottenham bid £25 million which was rejected.