Advisor and former scout Piet de Visser has revealed how Chelsea used him, and a second job at PSV Eindhoven, to sign Brazilian defender Alex.
De Visser has long been associated with the Blues, having been brought in during the Roman Abramovich era at the club and worked as something of a special advisor to the Russian billionaire during his time in charge.
He has naturally recommended a long list of players to Chelsea over those years, with some naturally going on to be signed and others ignored.
One of those he did see the best in was Brazilian defender Alex, who joined Chelsea in an €11.5m deal from Santos in July 2004.
He went on to make 134 appearances for the club between 2007 and 2012, winning the Premier League, FA Community Shield and two FA Cups during his time at Stamford Bridge.
That came after a three-year loan spell at PSV Eindhoven, who he joined the day after his arrival at Chelsea and made 123 appearances for as the Blues left him to develop in the Netherlands.
That was something which worked out in their favour and de Visser claims it was thanks to him that the whole strategy came about.
“Chelsea liked it if I combined the work with scouting work for PSV for the first few years,” PSV Fans report him saying to ELF.
“That was convenient because players from outside the European Union have to be internationals in the Premier League.
“I saw Alex. Other scouts assessed him as an unwieldy guy, but I saw potential. Chelsea were not allowed to get him. The interim solution of renting him out to PSV worked extremely well.”
