More Details On The Kevin De Bruyne Transfer

We've got some more details coming in on the Kevin de Bruyne deal as SportsWereld dig a little deeper into the story. The 20-year-old's transfer was finalised on Monday evening, with Genk sporting director Dirk Degraen flying into England to signed the agreement that sees de Bruyne become Chelsea property, but there's still a little confusion about the exact details. Here are the more interesting notes.

• SportsWereld confirm that de Bruyne is expected to go out on loan for the 2012/13 season, saying that he could go to the Premier League or other 'sub-top European club', specifically mentioning FC Twente in the Eredivisie. I think I'd prefer a slightly more aggressive assignment to a top four league, but that will probably depend on his performance for the rest of the season.
  
• The initial fee is indeed €8M (£6.7M), rising to a possible €9.6M (£8M) after performance bonuses. Strangely, SpertsWereld seem to be claiming that 'at least' €1M of said bonuses 'must' be paid.
• De Bruyne was indeed on the verge of being sold to Chelsea before the beginning of the season, but Genk convinced him to stay in a 'reconciliation meeting' by promising to facilitate a transfer this window. I'm glad they kept that promise.
• As far as wages go, de Bruyne will apparently receive a generous salary 'to a Chelsea standard' starting now. Since he's not a mostly-adequate English centre back, he's not going to be paid anything like £80,000 a week (my semi-educated guess is £30,000, but don't hold me to that), but whatever he's getting will still be a generous increase over anything that Genk would have been able to pay. De Bruyne's hit the big time.