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Chelsea are done with the Daniel Sturridge transfer (goodbye and good luck, Danny!), and we're about to have Demba Ba all wrapped up. It's January 3rd, and things are going abnormally fast for a transfer window. But that doesn't mean that there's not other stuff slowly bubbling and boiling in the background.
The rumours will be flying in all January, and here's a particularly juicy one: Gazetta Giallo Rossa are claiming that the Blues are in on Roma central defender Marquinhos*. For €28 million. I'm not sure as to how reliable the source was (it was passed to me via SB Nation Roma blog Chiesa di Totti), but it actually makes some sense despite the high price and Chelsea's needs in midfield and at centre forward.
*Not to be confused with Marquinho, who is a midfielder.
Marquinhos is an 18-year-old centre back who's already made a huge impression at the Stadio Olimpico, having broken into the starting lineup after a summer move from Corinthians. If David Luiz's conversion to the midfield is made permanent, having a hugely talented young central defender on our books wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
Chelsea have a lot of talented youngsters, but Nathan Ake aside our central defence looks relatively weak should the positional changes for Tomas Kalas and Nathaniel Chalohbah be permanent, and Marquinhos would be a huge addition to the team. I'm not sure I'd do it for the price mentioned (CdT seem to think he'd be worth it, and for an 18-year-old who's already one of the better defenders in Serie A they might be right), but this is an intriguing little story.