Ben Haim on way to Chelsea?
Bolton boss Sam Allardyce has today said that he feels talk of Chelsea's reported interest in defender Tal Ben Haim could have an inkling of truth about it.The Israeli international has impressed everyone at The Reebok since arriving in the North West from Maccabi Tel Aviv in the summer, with a series of excellent performances having not gone unnoticed elsewhere. Chelsea are well stocked in terms of central defenders but with talk of possible departures for Robert Huth and William Gallas , a move for Ben Haim is not out of the question. Allardyce has confirmed that Chelsea officials have reassured their Bolton officials that any approach would only be through official channels, adding that he can only now wait to see if a bid is made to Bolton.
''There's normally no smoke without fire,'' Allardyce told Sky Sports News. ''I think the chairman has spoken to someone at Chelsea who says if they were interested they would contact him, but again you can't always say that's the truth these days. ''In the end we will only find out by fact but that at this moment in time, there's been no contact from Chelsea football club to our football club regarding Tel Ben Haim and the sale of his registration to their club. ''At the moment it lies as pure speculation but then of course when Pini Zahavi gets mentioned in terms of the equation, you know how good a representative and how good an agent the man is, so there has to be perhaps something in it, like I said.
''At this moment we're only naive to the fact that it's only paper talk. The problem is if in January we already have five players leaving for the African Nations Cup, Tal going makes six and you can't replace him. It's that simple. ''The club can't really look at any offer for Tal Ben Haim in January.''
This is quite a surprising story for me because I personaly couldn't see Ben Haim playing for Chelsea (with all due respect). He has performed well this season for Bolton but I don't think he has done enough for me to earn a place in a Chelsea squad. I don't think Bolton boss "Big Sam" would be very happy if he lost a key player like Ben Haim during the January transfer window and I have also heard a rumor today that Jaaskilinean could be moving to Arsenal.