A few days prior to the closing of the summer transfer window, we heard rumors of Fenerbahce having interest in both Michael Essien and Raul Meireles. The concept seemed far-fetched at the time - mainly because it was The Daily Mail reporting - but it didn't seem out of the realm of possibility, either.
Essien has since been reunited with his daddy, Jose Mourinho, at Real Madrid on loan. Meireles, meanwhile, is still part of the immediate picture for Chelsea. How long he's a part of that image remains to be seen.
In a rather bizarre twist, news broke tonight that Fenerbahce had reached a pre-agreement with Chelsea for the transfer of Meireles. Huh?
The Portuguese midfielder, according to Turkish newspaper Vatan, would join the Turkish club at the end of the season. Vatan was the first outlet to report the deal, and apparently the only one because, as much as Graham, Peezy and I searched, we couldn't find anything more concrete on this.
WAGNH took to Twitter to get some more answers. Thankfully, Ata Dizdar - @ironturk - was willing to translate the Vatan piece for us, and also give us a little insight into the newspaper itself. Dizdar confirmed that the article points to a deal being very much close, though he warned us that the source may not be that credible (shocker).
— Ata Dizdar (@ironturk) September 2, 2012
@guusdevotee@wagnh_cfc Although I should warn you, Turkish sports media are full of you know what 99.5% of the time.
There you have it. There isn't much of a foundation for this rumor, but it certainly is something to keep an eye on over the next week. This place even reckons a deal could be announced as early as Tuesday. As always, we'll keep you posted on any and all developments regarding Meireles' hair.