Wesley Sneijder Is Not Coming To Chelsea

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We haven't brought this up in a long time, but there's been a midfield name that's been popping up all the time as an 'alternative' to buying Luka Modric from Tottenham Hotspur (a deal which is apparently now dead). That name is Wesley Sneijder, who currently plays in the Serie A with Inter Milan, who pay him a great deal of money for the privilege. The Italian side have mentioned their willingness to move him on this summer, possibly because of his wage packet, and Chelsea are one of the few teams in the world capable of paying his ridiculous salary.

Of course, being capable of paying the Dutch international isn't the same thing as it being reasonable to bring him on, and with rumours floating around that Sneijder would be looking for around 200,000 a week to come to England, most informed Blues fans recognised that it wasn't going to happen. That didn't stop the noise spreading about the little midfielder, though... but hopefully his admission that he's not leaving the San Siro will quieten things down.

I'm staying at Inter. I don't think I'll leave at this moment in the transfer market. Manchester United? Anything is possible in football, but I don't think this time something will happen. I know that if I were to leave it would have to be for the right price, Inter was clear about that. But I have not spoken formally with the two Manchester clubs.

-Wesley Sneijder. Source: Sender Nos via ESPN Soccernet.

I'm not too cut up about this. Sneijder is extremely expensive - moreso than Modric by a huge degree, and I actually think he's also fairly overrated based on his goals in the World Cup (where he actually played decently but got fluky with some shots and ended up with a heroic statistical line). That's not to say he's a bad player or that he wouldn't improve Chelsea, but I simply don't see him as one of the world's best, which is what his price tag implies.

Anyway, maybe people won't talk about him quite as much now. We can but hope.