Chelsea Eyeing Serbian Starlet

Chelsea Eyeing Serbian Starlet

Mourinho has not been happy with his strikers thus far at Chelsea since returning to the London club. He tried to make additions to his line up upon his arrival by capturing former charge Samuel Eto’o in the latter stages of the recently concluded transfer window but he failed in his pursuit of Wayne Rooney.

There were rumors that the likes of Fernando Torres and Demba Ba could be forced out of Stamford Bridge as Mourinho goes about shaping up a completely new look Chelsea attack. Summer signings Andre Schurrle and Kevin de Bruyne have been given chances in abundance this season to shine, at the expense of regular first-team players Torres and his Spanish counterpart Juan Mata.

Last season’s star Romelu Lukaku, who shone at West Brom, again found it hard at Chelsea and was thus sent out on loan to Everton this time around. Also, the signing of Eto’o is just a short-term fix as he is currently 32-year old and will be at the club for only a year as things stand now.

Mourinho has already begun his quest for a long-term replacement for Eto’o and his search his taken him to Portugese outfit Benfica, whose 19-year old striker Lazar Markovic has impressed him. The youngster was due to feature for his national team in last night’s World Cup qualifier clash against Croatia.

It was expected that Mourinho would be present in the stands as he watches his defender Branislav Ivanovic in action and would also take the opportunity to watch the young striker. Markovic has been widely regarded as a promising young talent and has a list of European club keeping tabs on his developments very closely. Chelsea are one of the suitors and Metro claim that the Blues are already lining up a bid in the near future for the young star.

The bid could be accelerated to this coming January depending on the situation of strikers at the club. Will Markovic be snapped up then by Chelsea and be absorbed into the youth team setup? If yes, then will he go onto becoming one of the first home bred stars at the London club?