‘My Dream’: International star speaks about Chelsea in glowing terms

So, after a rather long-winded pursuit, Chelsea appear to be on the home straight in terms of the deal to sign Brazilian international forward Alex Pato.

So much so that he has already been quoted as saying that it’s a dream for him to join the Stamford Bridge outfit.

He is quoted by The Guardian:

“I’m so happy. I stay here for my dream. Chelsea is my new home. Thanks to Chelsea for support. Thanks to my fans for support on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

“I need to play. I don’t know what to say because I’m so happy. I’m very anxious [to play] and I want to know my new friends and players in the team. I really want to play in Chelsea.”

He seems like a very well-mannered athlete and he’s got an impeccable reputation on and off the field.

But will he do the business at Chelsea?

Firstly TFF are great admirers of Guus Hiddink. He is one of the best coaches in the world and has an almost unblemished managerial record to show for it.

If Hiddink chose Pato then we expect the signing to work out for Chelsea. But he is only the interim manager right now so perhaps the decision to sign Pato was made from upstairs.

And we would have our reservations about Pato’s ability to adapt to the unique pressures of The Premier League.

He’s played on the biggest stages for Brazil and AC Milan, scoring 130 goals in 334 club games and 10 in 27 for Brazil.

But he doesn’t have great pace and he isn’t the strongest player when compared to most Premier League forwards.

So it really could go either way for him. He has the same level of technique as a player like Hernan Crespo who was a real success at Chelsea from 2003-2008.

But he isn’t noticeably quicker than Fernando Torres was during his Chelsea days or Andriy Shevchenko and probably not as physically strong as either.

So we will be very interested to see how he gets on at The Bridge and in a completely different league to what he is used to in Italy and Brazil.

Let’s hope that he is a great addition to The Premier League. You can see some Pato highlights here.