Sidwell agrees Chelsea move

CHELSEA have confirmed that midfielder Steve Sidwell has agreed to join the club on a free transfer from July 1.

The 24-year-old midfielder has quit Reading after rejecting a new £25,000 (€36,700)-per-week, four-year deal.

Former champions Chelsea have been consistently linked with a move for the highly-rated midfielder throughout the season.

Sidwell opted to join the Blues despite interest from Newcastle, Everton and Aston Villa.

He is Jose Mourinho’s first signing of the summer and will be a valuable addition to the squad. The Portuguese coach is now hoping to add a striker and a defender to the ranks.

Chelsea winger Arjen Robben is also close to agreeing a new deal at Stamford Bridge.

The club have been in talks for weeks over a new contract extension and the player’s agent and father, Hans Robben, expects the Dutch winger to shortly sign a new five-year deal.

The 23-year-old has been linked with a move to Bayern Munich but insists he wants to remain at Chelsea after their 1-0 FA Cup final victory over Manchester United at Wembley on Saturday.

Chelsea are believed to be ready to offer Robben an improved five-year deal and Robben senior confirmed: “We are close to a new deal. We have not agreed all the details, but I don’t expect any big problems any more.”

And when asked about the link with Bayern Munich, Robben senior added: “Nonsense. Of course there were several clubs last period who asked for Arjen, but we always had the intention to come to an agreement with Chelsea. That they will now sign him for five years, proves their confidence in his qualities.”

Meanwhile, Andriy Shevchenko’s advisors have moved swiftly to deny that his potential appearance at tonight’s Champions League final has nothing to do with speculation linking him with a return to AC Milan.

Shevchenko has been invited to attend the final as a guest of Milan.

The 30-year-old won the European Cup in 2003, beating Juventus, but was on the losing side when Milan lost to tonight’s opponents Liverpool on penalties in the 2005 final.

Despite joining Chelsea for nearly £30m (€44m) last summer the Ukraine international has been regularly linked with a return to the San Siro.

Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport have ruled that FIFA must penalise Adrian Mutu with financial penalties for breaching the terms of his Chelsea contract.

The Romania striker, now with Fiorentina, had his contract terminated by Chelsea after he tested positive for cocaine in October 2004. He joined Juventus on a free transfer during his seven-month suspension, even though he had cost Chelsea £15m (€22m).

The Blues successfully claimed Mutu had breached the terms of his contract by failing the drugs test and called on FIFA to decide on a compensation figure for the player to pay them.

Mutu argued he should not be liable to pay any compensation and FIFA said they did not have the jurisdiction to make any order.

However, the governing body must now make the decision after Chelsea took their case to the CAS and had their appeal upheld.