Afternoon all.
At the beginning of July Hulk of Porto to Chelsea was seeming like a done deal. Reportedly the Brazilian striker had already agreed personal terms with the Blues, and the albeit high fee of £38 million had been decided upon between the English and Portuguese clubs. This deal was apparently so complete that I even transferred the player across on FIFA (did the same with Modric last year). Then, gradually, the rumours quietened down. A few eyebrows were raised. A few more rumour articles appeared towards Deadline Day, but they were obviously just that: rumours. Deadline Day passed, and, surprisingly, Hulk remained at Porto FC, despite having issued statements throughout the summer like: "This could be the time for me to move. I would feel comfortable with moving clubs and the English league is one that appeals to me."
Strangely, Hulk signed for Zenit St Petersburg for 60 million euros (£48 million) on the 3rd September 2012. What went wrong? How could a supposedly world class striker who wanted to move to South-West London slip through our fingers?
Sorry if you knew all that, but this is the point of the article:
Mid July (17th to be precise), Chelsea FC declared that they had signed a three year partnership with Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited (GM&T). The Russian energy business is one of the biggest companies in the world, and they would supply the Blues' gas for free. The point of this? Zenit St. Petersburg are owned by Gazprom (76%). Early July the rumours of Hulk to Chelsea seemed hard, personal agreements and fee decided apparently. Mid July, they died. Coincidence?
Sources:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/31/chelsea-agree-deal-hulk-porto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_(footballer)#Zenit
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/chelsea-target-hulk-calls-for-porto-1256448
http://www.gazprom-mt.com/WhatWeSay/News/Pages/Gazprom-Marketing-and-Trading-Limited-signs-three-year-energy-partnership-deal-.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gazprom_subsidiaries
http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=16457
On Hulk, free gas and conspiracy theories.
posted on 16/10/12
Overrated going forward
posted on 16/10/12
Hey Junction
Hulk is overrated, if people thought Torres was bad at £50m, Hulk would be even worse.
posted on 16/10/12
Swear you were all for him 2 months ago Bubbles
posted on 16/10/12
For me Hulk was never a possibility once Moses came in and Sturridge didn't stay.
It's good that for once Chelsea are saying no, rather than clubs trying to bleed more money from us.
posted on 16/10/12
posted on 16/10/12
TBK
That was Superb. My preference was always to go for Cavani as my article history will show. Once I found out Cavani was a possibility I had no interest in Hulk and went on record saying we should not pay more than £30m for him if it happens.
posted on 16/10/12
Why overrated? I've never heard him labelled world class.. even by world class numpties on here. Watching him play wide forward for Porto and Brazil I'd say he's on a par with Bale. Not the finished article and needs to do it consistently, but on his day unplayable.
No payer is really worth £50m apart from the shirt sellers.. and you can't deny he's a bigger brand than Torres.
posted on 16/10/12
*player
Damn phone
posted on 16/10/12
I've never heard him labelled world class
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You'd be surprised Same with Bale as well..
posted on 16/10/12
http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewArticle/141031
Bale isn't world class but he's comfortably better than any other British player at the moment.