With financial fair play kicking in it will be interesting to see how big-name transfers are affected. Certainly teams that have huge annual revenues (Barca and Real) will gain an advantage in relative terms, and clubs with big-money owners (Chelsea, Man City, PSG) will be more heavily restricted. Hopefully it will make big clubs more willing to sell their top players.
As a Chelsea supporter obviously I'm hoping for a big-name and
in form striker. Chelsea haven't had too much luck buying big-name strikers in the past (Torres, Shevchenko, Crespo to name a few) but I think they'll need to take a dip again.
With Falcao injured I think Cavani will be the top transfer target, but if he can be prised away from PSG then he will probably cost around £60m. The rumours of
Chelsea making a £55m bid for Suarez are interesting... Much as I dislike Suarez, he's clearly on top form, and proven in the premiership. If he can be persuaded to move then he would be ideal, but frankly I don't see him going anywhere other than Real. And the £55m that Metro quote won't be close to enough after the season he's had.
Aside from a striker, I think that we really just need to look at long-term replacements for Cole and Terry. I think that Luke Shaw would be a very good buy, but it seems that there is competition with Man U, and the need to spend big on a striker may preclude any other large bids in the summer.
Honestly, I think that Chelsea have bought very well this past year - Willian has performed nicely, and Matic in particular looks to be an inspired purchase for the kind of approach Mourinho wants to take. Kurt Zouma seems like a decent investment for £12m also. With the addition of a top quality striker I think the team is well set for the next few seasons.
I think that Torres and Ba will both be sold early on in the summer window, and that Lukaku will return to the squad to be number 2 striker. Ashley Cole will leave free in the summer, and (hopefully) Luke Shaw will be brought in. Beyond that, I don't think Chelsea will be chasing any top players, though they'll probably continue their habit of buying a few 16-19 year olds in the <£10m bracket to send out on loan.
Edit:
The Mirror is reporting that Lukaku could be the one sold. In this case I assume we would keep Torres (ugh). I suppose that Lukaku is probably the more valuable player (~£25m?), and finding a buyer for Torres might not be easy, given his form and high wages (he's on £175k at Chelsea).
