Five tree-top level Premier League transfers

Despite not being selected for Brazil this summer, Felipe Luis was arguably the best right-back in Spain for title-winning Atletico Madrid.

Felipe Luis (Atletico Madrid to Chelsea; initial fee of 16million pounds)

There was a massive outcry amongst the football community when Luiz Felipe Scolari named his 23-man Brazilian squad for the World Cup.  Myself, like many others, not only felt that it was one of the weakest Brazil sides in memory, but that a first-choice back-four that included Marcelo, Dani Alves and David Luiz was far to prone to being cut apart.  Germany proved that to be correct, and it was felt by many that the inclusion of Felipe Luis in the side would have done much to improve Brazil’s quality at the back.

Fresh off an improbable La Liga championship season with Atletico Madrid and a run to the Champions League final, Felipe Luis was arguably the best overall right-back in Spain last season under Diego Simeone.  Simeone’s men only surrendered 26 goals in 38 league matches, no doubt a ridiculous statistic when you consider the amount of talented attacking players on offer.  What most Chelsea supporters will be excited about, is that Simeone’s side and Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea play a similar brand of football; surely, Luis will fit in perfectly at the Bridge.

What keeps the buzz around this transfer muffled, is the question of if Luis will feature prominently from the off for the club, or if Mourinho plans to slowly integrate him into the side and not risk changing a good thing at the back that already exists in his preferred back-four.  However, the aging legs of both John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic (he’s not old, but he has certainly lost a step) may cause Mou to reconsider; the result could see the back-four combination of Luis, Cahill, Zouma and Azpilicueta in the long term.

There is no shortage of talented left-back in the Premier League, but where many of them have a preference to join the attack and help dictate proceedings in the final third, Luis is instantly thrust into the conversation of being the most defensively able.  While the move for the Brazilian didn’t grab headlines, he could well do that on his own.