Blues Set To Increase Schurrle Bid - Telegraph

I was expecting the Andre Schurrle transfer talk to die down now that Chelsea are apparently on the verge of adding Internacional's Oscar to the squad. As usual, I was wrong. The Telegraph are reporting that the Blues are considering increasing their bid to €25M in order to land Schurrle, 21, from Bayern Leverkusen, and that talks between the clubs had been scheduled for Tuesday.

A €25M bid for a player who had a decent season at Leverkusen rather than a phenomenal one might seem excessive, but when you put Schurrle's campaign into context it's a lot more impressive -- not that many 21-year-olds can play that well in the Bundesliga while trying to carry a generally underperforming team and getting shifted all over the pitch (image from WhoScored). Considering that the Blues would be getting him for a long time if he develops as well as hoped, that price might actually turn out to be a bargain, although betting on young players developing properly isn't always the best idea where Chelsea are concerned.

It's not clear how much faith we should be putting into reports like this at the moment, especially since should Chelsea intend Oscar to be a wide forward Schurrle's space would be further limited, but his ability to serve as a backup striker for Fernando Torres makes him a very interesting option, especially if the Daniel Sturridge leaving rumours turn out to be true. I really like Schurrle, but I don't want to spend that much money on him if he doesn't have an obvious fit, and I doubt Chelsea do either.

At any rate, I'm reasonably sure that Leverkusen would seriously consider selling at the listed price. Although he's under contract through the 2015/16 season, so they have no need to sell, they'd make a huge profit on him after buying from Mainz last summer, and €25M represents good business. The Telegraph article indicates that they're more willing to let Schurrle move than their public statements indicate, but well. We'll see.

If we had a rumour reliability scale (we do now, I guess), I'd put this one at a three or a four out of ten. Let's see what happens, but don't count on it.