Chelsea seal late Meireles swoop
Chelsea have succeeded in another last-gasp raid of Liverpool after completing the signing of Raul Meireles with minutes of the transfer window remaining.
In an eerie echo of Fernando Torres' £50million January switch, the Blues left it until just before the deadline to complete a deal for Meireles.
Like Torres, the midfielder submitted a written transfer request on Wednesday night, with Liverpool also agreeing a fee with Chelsea reportedly in the region of £12million.
The Blues had been hoping Meireles, who signed a four-year deal, would be joined at Stamford Bridge by Porto left-back Alvaro Pereira but they were unable to reach an agreement before the 11pm deadline.
They were also unable to offload any of their squad other than in loan deals, with Yossi Benayoun joining Arsenal, Gael Kakuta moving to Bolton and Patrick van Aanholt being farmed out to Wigan.
New signing Ulises Davila also joined Vitesse Arnhem for the season.
Chelsea reportedly had a bid rejected for Meireles on Tuesday but, having seen numerous mega-money offers rejected for Tottenham's Luka Modric, they appeared to meet Liverpool's asking price.
Meireles was named the PFA Fans' Player of the Year after an impressive maiden season at Anfield last term but was deemed surplus to requirements by Reds boss Kenny Dalglish.
The 28-year-old briefly worked with Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas at Porto, who snubbed their former boss' attempts to bring Pereira with him to Stamford Bridge.
The player was said to have wanted a reunion but one of his representatives suggested the Portuguese champions' refusal to budge on his £26million release clause was a legacy of Villas-Boas' own summer defection.
