Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool in three-way transfer battle

Chelsea, Newcastle United and Liverpool currently occupy 5th, 6th and 7th place in the Premier League respectively and now the trio are set to go head-to-head in a transfer battle for Mauricio Isla. According to TribalFootball.com, Isla is attracting the attention of Alan Pardew and Kenny Dalglish, while Chelsea are looking to rebuild their squad in advance of making a better attempt to regain their Premier League crown next season.

So what of Mauricio Isla? The versatile midfielder is predominantly a right sided player, but he can also play on the left or even central midfield at a push. Most comfortable as a right midfielder, he can also push forward as a winger or operate more defensively at right back. This versatility makes him an attractive prospect for all three clubs, with Newcastle’s right hand side currently the weakest part of their starting eleven.

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23-year-old Isla is a one-club man currently, having spent his whole professional career in the Italian Serie A with Udinese. This would make the switch to Newcastle easy for him, as he’d be able to keep his black and white shirt! Isla has played over 100 times in his five years with Udinese, while he also has 31 caps for Chile to his name and the South American featured in all four of Chile’s games at the 2010 World Cup.

At just 5ft 9in tall, Isla is a diminutive figure who is technically sound, has a decent level of pace and a good engine to get him up and down the right hand side of the pitch. The wing back has featured a fair bit in the Udinese back line, meaning he’s had to hold back his attacking tendencies, but in the Premier League he could be employed further forward and allowed to surge forward with more regularity.

At this moment in time Liverpool can offer Isla Europa League football next season, which is likely to be the same offering as Chelsea if Tottenham and Arsenal pip the Blues to Champions League qualification. Newcastle might be able to match that depending on how the rest of the season pans out and they do have a possible advantage of a strong heritage of South American players coming to Tyneside, including current Argentinian stars Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez.

Here is an indication, albeit a pretty lengthy one, of what Mauricio Isla would bring to the Premier League…

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