Thibaut Courtois stories are going to be the flavour of the next several weeks, one imagines, but fortunately at least one of the rumours that's been floating around has been squashed early and hard. The Spanish papers dropped Real Madrid's name into the mix for the services of the on-loan Chelsea goalkeeper, and although Jose Mourinho refused to be drawn into the story, Carlo Ancelotti had no such qualms:
I don't think we'll sign Courtois. We have two great goalkeepers so we are solid in goal.
-Source: Inside Futbol.
Which I guess is what you would say if you had both Iker Casillas and Diego Lopez on your squad. Real Madrid's case is actually pretty instructive for Chelsea in terms of Courtois -- Mourinho was more than happy to shunt a beloved club icon from the starter's spot once his supposed backup was outperforming him, so we shouldn't expect much mercy for Cech if he starts to slip. The difference, of course, is that Cech isn't going through the sort of injury-riddled slump we saw from Casillas last year, so it'll be a much harder call for the manager.
And, until it's made, we'll have to deal with Courtois' future being brought up every ten minutes or so. What fun.