I'm having a hard time thinking ahead to this summer after Chelsea deservedly knocked out Barcelona to reach the Champions League final next month, but sometimes rumors are just a little too good to ignore. Many of you are aware of Kevin De Bruyne and his recent run of ridiculous form, so naturally he's going to be an in demand player for clubs throughout Europe. Chelsea now own his rights, so teams seem to be lining up to attempt to acquire his services via loan. According to the ever knowledgeable John Chapman:
That's some excellent news on a bunch of fronts. All four of the mentioned clubs will allow De Bruyne the chance to step in and play regularly against top quality competition, and all four would have players we might be interested in purchasing. Lille seem the obvious choice with Eden Hazard likely to move to England this summer, and a loan of De Bruyne would likely make any offer from Chelsea all that much more enticing. Benfica have the ultra exciting Nicolas Gaitan on their books and destined for greatness, Atletico need cash and have some guy named Falcao, and even Sporting have Ricky van Wolfswinkel that we've been linked to in the past.
When all is said and done, any swap talk is just speculation at this point. Knowing that larger clubs have a confirmed interest in our young Belgian is certainly good news though, as many of us are rightfully excited by his recent play. We'll keep you informed as we hear more, It's only about a month until the rumor mill gets going full bore again. Hopefully at that time we'll be showing off some new additions to the trophy case when players come to visit...