JOSÉ MOURINHO’S position remains secure, but Chelsea’s summer transfer plans have been altered by elimination from the Champions League. Although not returning to the drawing board, the club have resolved to throw money at the problem, planning a spending spree to strengthen a squad already capable of competing at the highest level. Agents around the world are trembling with excitement.

Chelsea were hoping to avoid much transfer activity in the close season after consolidating their position as the dominant force in the Barclays Premiership, though such notions of restraint appear to have disappeared. The club’s board will sit down with Mourinho and Roman Abramovich at the start of next month to compile a summer wish-list, with the acquisition of a world-class striker, goalscoring midfield player and defensively sound left back uppermost in their thoughts.

Michael Ballack has been identified as their first-choice midfield player and his arrival has moved a step closer this week after Bayern Munich’s elimination from the Champions League. Discussions are at an advanced stage with Michael Becker, the player’s agent, and although a deal has yet to be agreed, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the Bayern president, conceded yesterday that it was inevitable that Ballack would join Chelsea. Although not everyone is convinced that the 29-year-old will form an effective midfield partnership with Frank Lampard, a similar style of player, Mourinho believes his goalscoring record will strengthen Chelsea as an attacking unit.

“Inter [Milan] made their move for Ballack much too late, I am sure that by now he is joining Chelsea,” Rummenigge said. “There are little possibilities that he’ll stay with Bayern Munich. The reasons are not of an economic nature, but in his desire to have new experiences.”

With his contract up at the end of the season, Ballack is free to sign a pre-contract agreement whenever he wants and could do so in the next few weeks, but Chelsea’s other targets will be much harder to acquire. The club have had problems recruiting a proven goalscorer in the past, with Andriy Shevchenko, Adriano and Samuel Eto’o turning them down in recent years, and there are few available alternatives.

Despite the disappointment at going out to Barcelona, there were no recriminations on the players’ return to training yesterday, with most of the squad accepting they had been beaten by a better team. Mourinho, though, felt the need to explain his decision to play three wingers in Arjen Robben, Damien Duff and Joe Cole. “The thinking behind that was to have three fast players to make Arjen more free than normal,” the manager said.

“We wanted to try to get Arjen behind defenders.”