Paris Saint Germain right-back Dani Alves has explained that he was extremely close to joining the Blues in the Premier League before finally making a move to Barcelona back in 2007.
When we think of the best right backs in the world, Dani Alves is certainly up there among the top. And to think that we could have seen him in England, playing for Chelsea would give the West London fans quite a few heartaches. However, the Brazilian defender has opened up on how close he was to joining Chelsea after his successful spell with Sevilla.
At the Andalusian club, Alves won two UEFA Cups, one Copa Del Rey, and a Spanish Super Cup, his role was key to Sevilla winning silverware and La Liga giants Barcelona swopped him up for a fee of €32.5 million back in 2007. But Alves was ‘convinced’ that he was joining Chelsea until negotiations mysteriously broke down at Stamford Bridge.
While speaking to Sky Sports, the 35-year-old PSG right back stated that he was ready to work with Jose Mourinho, who was Chelsea boss at the time in 2007, but the club reportedly didn’t want him, “I didn’t go to Chelsea because of the club, not because of me, I thought it was done, that I was going there to work with José Mourinho. I don’t know if he got different information, that I didn’t want to go or whatever, because since then our relationship hasn’t been so good, but it wasn’t my fault. I was convinced that I was going to work with him and form part of his team.”
But Alves then spoke very differently of his then Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola and took a sly dig at Mourinho, “I remember the first chat I had with Guardiola, From the first moment, he made it very, very, very, very, very clear what he wanted and why he had taken the job. He had a tremendous desire to do something different as a manager of that club. Obviously it was going to be a challenge, but I remember he said, ‘I can only do it if you follow me. It didn’t turn out too badly for him, eh?”
Under Guardiola, Alves went on form the greatest Barcelona teams ever, leaving the Camp Nou with six La Liga titles and three Champions League trophies as well.
