Jose's squad almost complete

Last updated : 18 July 2014 By Paul Lagan

With Diego Costa and Filipe Luis now in the bag, the restructuring of Jose Mourinho's squad is almost complete.
Sorting out the personal terms for Costa took rather longer than anyone at SW6 was expecting and from the opening of negotiations back in April, it took until mid July before pen was finally put to paper.
Cesc Fabregas was the early summer signing although talks started with him much later than Costa.
Once Ashley Cole was informed in mid May that he would not be getting a new contract, talks with Athletico Madrid for Brazil left-back Luis took on extra significance.
His personal terms are still proving to be a pain for Chelsea, they are not insurmountable.
Those three will be at Cobham next week ahead of the club's mini-tour of Europe.
The World Cup players will return to training in a staggered schedule depending in the time they stayed at the tournament.
The Brazil lads and Andre Schurrle are due back a week after the rest.
While Chelsea won't rule out any more players coming in, I understand that the major deals have been done for this transfer window.
There is a need to bring in a third striker should Romelu Lukaku get his wish and be allowed to leave - but Chelsea are holding out for at least £20m. They believe that he has improved as a player while a Chelsea player and want to get back more than the £18m they paid for him.
Romelu Oriol has been offered a new deal which will keep him a Chelsea player until 2017, but I expect the former Barcelona B player to be farmed out on loan again, most probably back to Valencia where he spent last season.
Chelsea will hope to offload either left-back Ryan Bertrand and Patrick van Aarnott during this window. Bertrand was wanted by Liverpool but they have now ended their interest. Van Aarnott is fed up at been constantly loaned out and like Lukaku wants away from Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea operate a triple-tier footballing strategy; firstly and the highest priority is keeping the first team squad of 24 players topped up so they are competitive for the major honours. They are mindful of their commitment to home-grown quota, but the likes of Fabregas count as one so you can see how that can be abused. Nathan Ake will now count as a home-grown player and so will benefit this season from hanging round last season.
The second tier consists of players who Chelsea consider can add financially to their revenue stream by improving their lot by going out on loan. These are players the Blues don't think are ready for the first-team but are valued for their future transfer potential. Bertrand, Oriol, Josh McEachran Lukaku and Van Aarnott fall into this category.
The final one is basically the development squads of U-21, U-19 and U-18s.
Despite winning their league and FA youth Cups, it is likely that the closest these players get to the first-team is to be makeweights during pre-season for the absence of first-team players still on holiday.
The are some terrific players there, but if one makes it through to the first team squad this season, I and most Chelsea fans will be delighted and surprised.