It's been a little too long since we heard anything from our friends in Anderlecht and RC Genk, and Twitter's leading us to believe that some interesting things might be afoot there. It's not Romelu Lukaku that's raising headlines, though - Chelsea's pursuit of the striker seems to have died down since Andre Villas-Boas took the helm at Stamford Bridge - and it's not even Kevin de Bruyne.
Instead, Chelsea are apparently fast closing in on young goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who (as you may recall) made the rather bold claim that he'd be the one to take over from Petr Cech when the Blues goalkeeper finally moved on. Courtois, 19, will apparently be loaned straight back to his current club in any deal:
Courtois deal to Chelsea has been said to include loan back to Genk for one year. But repeat, not done deal yet. Great keeper tho! #cfc
We did our best to profile Courtois as soon as he was linked with us, and we at least found some video highlights for y'all to stare at. The prices being thrown around for him are fairly acceptable (€4M ish) and although he'll never qualify as home-grown we don't have to worry about his status for the next few seasons.. Courtois, in other words, would be a pretty savvy pickup, and he'd instantly vault into the pantheon of Chelsea greats as 'best Thibaut ever', which is nice.
So what's going on elsewhere? Have we heard anything from Lukaku or de Bruyne? Nope, not really. Chelsea, apparently, are still in for both, and Anderlecht aren't talking to anyone else but the Blues regarding Lukaku. In other words, nothing's really changed since last month. If you wanted my opinion on that, I'd guess that neither will be moving to Chelsea this summer, although I'd still expect Lukaku to make the switch at some point. It's just been too quiet to be confident either will come.
That, of course, may have something to do with Andre Villas-Boas' arrival. The instant he was announced as Chelsea manager, the rumour mill focused itself on Radamel Falcao and his Porto colleagues, and although it's silly to pay too much attention to what they tell you is going on, it sure seems as though Villas-Boas is more interested in going after players from more established leagues than Belgium.
I like all three players we're being connected to over there, but I'm not going to get too upset if we miss out on any of them (unless it was something like Lukaku to Arsenal, because that would be annoying). Would it be nice to have de Bruyne, Lukaku and Courtois? Yes, definitely. But it's not as though they'll impact the 2011/12 season in the slightest.