Having been touted as one of the most exciting prospects in English football, and having been watched by scouts from Arsenal, Manchester City, Barcelona and Real Madrid, to end up playing for Wigan, and to have your style of play defined by inconsistency, must be somewhat disappointing for Victor Moses.

The logic of signing for Wigan was that he would have the opportunity to play regular first team football in order to prove himself before a bigger club came along. A rational stance to take, but it hasn’t all gone as planned. Apart from anything else, Moses has been relatively disappointing since his move to the Premier League.

As a club that plays attacking, fast paced football Wigan should have been the perfect club, with the perfect manager, to develop Moses into a quality player. And, although he showed signs of that last season, Moses is far from a proven commodity.

It’s true that there were some stand out performances at the end of last season, particularly in games such as the 2-1 victory over Arsenal at The Emirates but if he wants to make it at a top club then more than the occasional stellar performance is necessary.

So, with that in mind, it seems a little strange that Chelsea are reported to be closing in on a £10m deal for Moses. In the past twelve months Chelsea have signed Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Marko Marin and Eden Hazard. On top of that they also have Yossi Benayoun, who had a brilliant season for Arsenal, returning to the club.

Moses likes to play on the left side of an attacking three, but despite the loss of Kalou, competition couldn’t really be higher. At the moment they have Marin, De Bruyne, Malouda, Benayoun, Sturridge, Mata and Hazard who can all play there. It might not be many of those players preferred position yet that is where new boy Hazard played much of last season for Lille.

Alright, you might think, so Moses is being signed as a replacement winger – but the options already available make it a strange choice nonetheless. With Drogba having left, Torres and Sturridge’s form remaining inconsistent, and Lukaku having barely played last year it is possible that Chelsea and Di Matteo intend to use Moses as an alternative option up front; this would be understandable if Moses played there for Wigan.

The true reasons for Chelsea’s interest are surely part of a longer-term plan by the club’s hierarchy to reduce the age of the squad and buy young talented players before financial fair play comes in to effect. After wasting vast sums of money on ageing players like Shevchenko a few years ago, Chelsea now have an increasingly large group of younger players. As I mentioned before players like Lukaku, De Bruyne, Marin have been added to Sturridge, Courtois and now Hazard. Moses could be the next on the list.

Chelsea know they have an old squad, but where Andre Villas Boas failed in his attempt to rebuild the team Abramovich, Bruce Buck and Ron Gourlay will not.

Both Di Matteo and Villas-Boas admitted to moves for players being made without their involvement and it appears that trend will continue.

One further point that could be mentioned, which I admit is nothing but lateral speculation, is that players like Marin, De Bruyne and Moses are all promising yet far from world class; they’re also relatively cheap. Having been burned with high transfer fees for players like Shevchenko and Torres perhaps Chelsea feel they would rather buy lots of promising, cheap youngsters in the hope that just one or two of them turn out well than risk huge transfer fees. After all, for the price of Torres, Chelsea could buy five or six such players and one or two of them may turn out to be as good or better than the Spaniard.

Follow me on twitter @H_Mackay

[ad_pod id='inblog' align='left']