Chelsea FC and Bolton Wanderers are set to announce a £7M deal for the transfer of England international Gary Cahill this January, according to several reliable reports. There's no word of Josh McEachran loan here, contrary to earlier rumours, but Cahill is definitely coming - he's already agreed to personal terms and is expected to join the club as soon as the transfer window opens.

I don't think Cahill is as capable a player as many do - although he's a decent England international, England would finish about eighth in the Premier League, so that doesn't really impress me. He's had a poor season after a slew of average ones, and the fact that he's young and cheap doesn't really make up for it. The idea that he's capable of pushing David Luiz out of the starting lineup is, to me, laughable.

I'm more than willing to be proven wrong on this one, but unless this is a move for a backup centre half (which would essentially cripple Cahill's career) just in case the John Terry situation goes all wrong, I'm against this move in the most strenuous possible terms. The evidence says that Cahill is in no way, shape or form, anything more than a consistently mediocre player, and for a Chelsea team that needs some help to compete for the Premier League title and the Champions League, he should be considered nothing more than emergency depth.

Hopefully the terms are reasonable and he's an Alex replacement only. If that's the case, I can deal with Cahill on the team. Otherwise, I'm going to point out every stupid mistake he makes from now until the end of time. That might be abusive, but everyone's already doing it with a much better player anyway, so whatever. There're performance bonuses (presumably attached to playing time) in the deal, so we're not going to be paying out the nose for him unless he actually does well (or he does badly but we just don't notice).

Gary Cahill is not a good enough football player to start for this club on a regular basis. Hopefully everyone who disagrees can tell me 'I told you so' in a couple of years. We'll get you an idea of his wages when we have them.