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Some interesting rumblings out of Spain today as the ever-unreliable Marca believe that a Premier League club has just offered £38M for the services of Real Madrid's Angel di Maria. Oh, and that it's probably Chelsea, because Andre Villas-Boas is a big fan and already tried to land him last summer.
On the face of things, this would be perfect. The Argentinian is one of the top wide players in the world, and has probably been the second best player on Jose Mourinho's squad (when fit) this year. Landing him would solve many of Chelsea's problems in an instant, and £38M isn't unreasonable for a player of that calibre. Unfortunately, it's incredibly unlikely to happen. Why? Just read into di Maria's supposed motivation here:
(Warning: Google translated!)
At 23, [di Maria] feels very comfortable in Madrid and Madrid. It has the confidence of Mourinho and has adapted quickly to the city, where his friendship with Higuain has been decisive. However, the unfairness of pay and performance between Di Maria and other players is causing Angel is seriously considering his future.
Yeah, this is about money, and if I had to guess, I'd say Chelsea are being used as a boogeyman by the player's agent in negotiations for a new contract. We've seen this before in the never-ending Sergio Ramos rumours, and now it's happening again. Here's how this will go - there'll be no further talk of him this window but the rumours will come back this summer and then di Maria will sign a gigantic new contract with Real Madrid sometime before the start of the season and we'll all be disappointed.
There are two or three teams in the world that we're not stealing top attacking players from, and Madrid is one of them. Don't get your hopes up here.