Transfer news: Chelsea completed their summer spending spree yesterday when they signed Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho from Porto for €30 million (£19.8 million), while Real Madrid claim they have agreed terms with Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira.
Carvalho passed a medical examination and agreed a three-year contract yesterday.
He follows Jose Mourinho, the former Porto coach who took over at Chelsea last month, to the London club.
Mourinho has been looking for an extra central defender, as he reiterated after Chelsea's 4-2 victory over Celtic in Seattle on Saturday, a match that exposed the club's lack of cover for William Gallas and John Terry.
"You could understand why I need another central defender," Mourinho said afterwards.
"Imagine in high-level competition this kind of situation. So we have this space to be occupied."
Marcel Desailly and Robert Huth remain at the club, but Desailly has been deemed surplus to requirements at 35 and Huth is deemed too inexperienced at 19.
Carvalho (26) is Mourinho's seventh major signing for Chelsea. He follows Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba (£24 million), Dutch left winger Arjen Robben (£12 million), Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech (£7 million), Serbia-Montenegro forward Mateja Kezman (£5 million), Portuguese midfielder Tiago Mendes (£8 million) and right back Paulo Ferreira (£13.2 million).
Carvalho's arrival would bring Chelsea's spending since the end of last season to about £89 million and to more than £200 million since the Russian billionaire mogul Roman Abramovich took control of the club a year ago.
Meanwhile, Spanish paper Marca reported yesterday that Real Madrid have agreed personal terms with Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira.
According to Marca, Real will now attempt to sort out a deal with the English club over the 28-year-old French midfielder, who is their principal target for the new season.
Real Madrid have signed one world-class player each season since Florentino Perez took over as club president in 2000.
On all four occasions, Real have done deals with the players first before going on to talk to the clubs.
The big-name signings enticed by Perez to the Bernabeu in the last four years have been Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham.
Perez was re-elected Real president earlier this month and has promised to continue his policy of bringing in one "galactico" per season.
Chelsea's 30 million "galactico", Carvalho, joined Porto from Leca as a 19-year-old in 1998. He spent time out on loan before winning a place in the Porto side three years ago when Jorge Costa was loaned out to Charlton.
He played a key role the following season, when Porto won the league, cup and UEFA Cup, and last season, when Porto retained the Portuguese league title and won the European Cup.
He made his international debut in October 2003, as a second-half substitute in a 5-3 friendly win over Albania, but did not win a regular place in the side until Fernando Couto was dropped after the 2-1 defeat by Greece in the opening game of this year's Euro 2004.
Though Portugal lost to Greece again in the final, and Carvalho was outjumped by Angelos Charisteas for the winning goal, the central defender was elected to UEFA's All Star team of the tournament.
