SOCCER:Chelsea's pre-season lurched into crisis last night after it emerged that Alex, the centre-half whose presence would have helped alleviate a worsening injury list, has returned to his native Brazil after being informed by customs officials at Heathrow that he was unlikely to qualify for a work permit.
The 25-year-old, who has spent the last two seasons "parked" at PSV Eindhoven while Chelsea waited to secure his move to Stamford Bridge, had arrived in England on Sunday, following a period of extended leave after the Copa America, hoping to negotiate personal terms on a four-year deal with the club.
However, immigration officers scrutinising his case at the airport indicated he was unlikely to qualify for a permit because he had failed to play the required minimum number of international games since 2005. Alex, growing frustrated at the delay at customs, boarded a flight back to Brazil.
Chelsea insisted last night they had anticipated the centre-half would not qualify immediately for the permit. Home Office regulations state a non-European Union player must feature in 75 per cent of his country's competitive senior matches for which they are available in the preceding two years to be granted permission to work in the United Kingdom.
Despite helping Brazil win the tournament in Venezuela, in which he featured in all six of their games, Alex has played in only eight of Brazil's last 14 competitive matches.
However, the club's lawyers are confident the decision will be reviewed at a hearing next week - much in the same way Arsenal are hopeful for their Brazilian-born Croatia international Eduardo da Silva - though Alex's decision to return to Rio rather than enter the country to await a final decision came as a surprise. Indeed, he did not even wait for confirmation to filter through that a permit would not be forthcoming.
"At airport immigration there was a request to clarify Alex's current status," confirmed a Chelsea spokesman. "After an initial delay, he was cleared to enter the country. He chose voluntarily to fly back, but will return when necessary."
"We have a duty to ensure that the public are aware of, and have confidence in, the security in place at the border, which is for their protection," said the strategic director of border control, Brodie Clark. "Visitors to the UK need to be aware of the presence of immigration officers and that they will be subject to checks before being granted entry to this country."
Alex, whose excellent display helped PSV eliminate Arsenal from last season's Champions League, would not have been immediately available to Jose Mourinho but his absence has done little to improve the mood within the squad. Six players - Andriy Shevchenko, Paulo Ferreira, John Terry, Arjen Robben, Claude Makelele and Michael Essien - missed training yesterday, with Jon Mikel Obi and Lassana Diarra joining them in the treatment room after the session, the latter having damaged a knee in a challenge with Steve Sidwell.
Salomon Kalou and Ashley Cole participated yesterday but remain troubled by shoulder and ankle complaints respectively.
Michael Ballack remains in rehabilitation after two operations on an ankle injury and Wayne Bridge has been ruled out for three months after surgery on a hip injury, making 12 members of Mourinho's first-team squad who are either sidelined with injury or labouring badly with the new league season less than two weeks away.
Chelsea play Manchester United in Sunday's Community Shield and, while they open their league campaign at home to Birmingham and travel to Reading in midweek, they face Liverpool at Anfield on August 18th with concern already growing over the state of the squad's fitness ahead of that fixture.
West Ham United were last night moving towards agreement on the signing of former Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen from Barcelona. The Iceland international would probably struggle for regular first-team football at Camp Nou next season after the arrival of Thierry Henry from Arsenal and has been earmarked by Alan Curbishley as a possible replacement for Carlos Tevez.
Sam Allardyce yesterday had a clear-the-air meeting with Chis Mort, the Newcastle United chairman, after relationships became strained at St James' Park. Already dismayed by what he regards as a lack of investment in new players, the manager was concerned by Sunday newspaper reports suggesting Mike Ashley, the club's new owner, was poised to replace him with Alan Shearer in a move that would also see Kevin Keegan returning to Tyneside as director of football.
That scenario, however, is highly unlikely to unfold. Shearer is currently "very happy" working for the BBC and Keegan remains fully occupied running his Soccer Circus business in Glasgow.
Potentially more seriously, Allardyce - who was appointed by Freddy Shepherd, Newcastle's former chairman, only days before Ashley bought the club - is unhappy after being told his transfer budget is considerably slimmer than he had anticipated.
Mort, a London lawyer with one of the city's top firms, is said to be "applying the brakes" after his strategic review of the club's finances revealed the full extent of Newcastle's debts, which were recently estimated at €118 million.
Guardian Service
