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Chelsea Football Club is pleased to announce Cesar Azpilicueta has
today signed a new five-year contract.

The defender joined the Blues from Marseille in August 2012 and has so
far made 95 appearances for the club, scoring once in last season's
Capital One Cup victory at Arsenal.

Azpilicueta, affectionately known as 'Dave' by supporters, ended his
first Chelsea season by lifting the Europa League trophy in Amsterdam.

Last season he was a member of the Barclays Premier League's meanest
defence which conceded just 27 times in 38 games. He also received the
Chelsea Players' Player of the Year award.

The 25-year-old has begun this season in typically fine form and is
currently away with the Spanish national team having represented them
at this summer's World Cup.

---nije nesto preterano atraktivan igrac...al radi poso !

+ Fin tekst o prelaznom roku.

By Stephen Schmidt
Sep 1 2014

The transfer 2014 summer transfer window has now slammed close, and
there were no 11th hour surprises from Chelsea. Most of the works was
done early in the summer, with only minor moves (though noteworthy
ones) left for the last days of business.

While the close of business was generally a sleepy bit of time for
Chelsea, it was a very busy summer on the whole. Jose Mourinho has
traditionally made massive changes to his squads between his first and
second seasons in charge, and while the January window saw the club
get an early jump on building the manager his preferred squad, this
summer saw massive changes made that should shape the club for the
foreseeable future. Mourinho now has his squad, and it's time to lift
some silverware.

We'll start with the departures, and there were more than a few of
those. Long time servants like Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, and
Henrique Hilario weren't re-signed in a playing capacity, and both
Cole and Lampard signed deals overseas. Unfortunately, Lampard's MLS
deal has seen him loaned to Manchester City, where he'll likely see a
few minutes before NYCFC get going in January.

Samuel Eto'o was also out of contract, and after a single mediocre
season saw him perform adequately at best, he was allowed to sign with
Everton on a free transfer. Demba Ba was sold to Besiktas, and if he'd
rediscovered his shooting boots early in his spell with the Turkish
side, he may well have kept Arsenal out of the Champions League.
Fernando Torres also left the club in a rather shocking move, even if
it had to be put together as a two-year loan because of the player's
massive wages and nonexistent production. None of last year's
misfiring trio will be back, and frankly, none will likely be missed.

Romelu Lukaku joined his strike partners in making a permanent move
away, pushing hard for a transfer to Everton where he'd see little
competition for a first team place. It's hard to call the big
Belgian's time at Stamford Bridge as anything short of disappointing,
as twice he had a golden opportunity to carve out a major role at one
of Europe's elite clubs, and both times he chose to leave for a lesser
club where he'd walk into the first eleven.

Also leaving on a permanent basis was the polarizing David Luiz. While
the center back never managed to be consistent enough to earn a spot
in the center of Chelsea's defence, he put together a few impressive
displays in the Chelsea midfield last spring which helped propel the
Blues to within a game of the Champions league final.

There were a few less noteworthy permanent moves, with Patrick van
Aanholt, George Saville, Milan Lalkovic, Jhon Pirez, Billy Clifford,
Danny Pappoe, and Sam Hutchinson moving on. There were also a whole
host of loans completed, with Christian Atsu, Marco van Ginkel, Oriol
Romeu, Tomas Kalas, Thorgan Hazard, Lucas Piazon, Mario Pasalic,
Kenneth Omeruo, and Patrick Bamford being the more noteworthy moves
thus far. We've also had moves announced for Ulises Davila, Josh
McEachran, Wallace, Stipe Perica, Ryan Bertrand, Victor Moses, Islam
Feruz, and others which you'll see regular reviews of on Tuesdays.

While the departures were plentiful, the arrivals were just exciting.
Diego Costa was signed to lead the Chelsea line, while Didier Drogba
returned to Stamford Bridge to provide experience and leadership from
the bench. Rounding out the strike force is the versatile Loic Remy,
signed from QPR after Chelsea found a side dumb enough to take Torres
off their hands.

The attacking band behind the strikers returns completely in tact,
marking the first time in ages that Chelsea have departed from their
policy of spending big on an attacking band player. They did sign an
attack minded midfielder to slot deeper into their setup, taking
Arsenal legend Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona when the Spaniard fell out
of favor. Thus far, he's looked an excellent signing even if his
defensive work has been awful.

Filipe Luis was signed as a replacement for Ashley Cole, and once
Chelsea start playing multiple games every week, we ought to see him
given a shot to earn a regular starting role. Kurt Zouma also arrived
and made the squad after signing last January, though he's yet to
debut in the season's first three games.

Rounding out the additions was a very big young man, as Thibaut
Courtois returned from his third successive loan at Atletico Madrid to
compete with Petr Cech. It's only been three games, but it seems
unlikely that the Belgian will be spending too much time on the bench,
though Mourinho may decide to use Cech in early cup games to keep the
legendary goalkeeper somewhat happy.

With that, Mourinho has his squad that will suit up until January 1,
and while there are still a few questions about depth in midfield and
defence, it looks a very formidable unit.