June is almost past us, and with the arrival of July, and naturally with the opening of the English transfer window, a renewed round of speculation about potential arrivals is set to begin. For those of you already tired of the Cavani and Van Ginkel back-and-forth, here's something new to dig into.
The kind-of-reliable-but-equally-slapworthy Duncan Castles is claiming Chelsea might be ready to step up their interest in Bruma and enter the frame for the highly talented 18 year old Portuguese, whose performances have seen him earn the rather unimaginative tag of the 'new Cristiano Ronaldo', for scoring quite a few ridiculously good goals from the wings.
With his performances at the club level drawing a lot of praise from around Europe, interest in the young winger had perked up, especially when he expressed a disinclination to renew his contract with Sporting Lisbon, whom he has only one year left with. Further, it isn't just the club level where his performances have been noticed, as he's been helping Portugal U20 sail through the group round of the ongoing U20 World Cup, where his blistering form has seen him net 5 times in 3 appearances.
Castles asserts Bruma has been on Mourinho's radar for a while now, saying he had recommended the youngster to Real when in Spain, and aims to convince the Chelsea hierarchy to outbid fellow suitors for his signature. For their part, Sporting seem to have given up in their attempts to persuade Bruma to stay on, and as such are reportedly willing to do business.
It bears noting however, that Chelsea, should they choose to get involved, will have plenty of competition to shrug off, with Bayern, City, and Liverpool all interested and ahead in the queue. Liverpool, reportedly close to tying up a deal for another talented Sporting prospect Tiago Ilori, are said to be closest, as they seek to arrange a combined deal for both youngsters.
Bruma himself was questioned about the persistent rumours by A Bola, but appeared reluctant to discuss, instead saying:
"It's always nice to hear and to know of the interest of big clubs but I'm not thinking about it. I have people working on these issues and for now my main concern is to help my team get as far [as possible] in the Under-20 World Cup"
Considered in isolation, as uphill a task as stealing a march on other bidders and actually managing to acquire the player might seem, it's hard to deny there's a ton of sense in this one. Chelsea don't exactly possess a plethora of young talent in wide positions at the moment, and the ones we do/may have at the club, (with the possible exception of Alex Kiwomya) haven't particularly stood out as reliable options for the future.
There's also an unusual connection worth noting here in the fact that Bruma's older brother, Mesca, who (also) arrived early from Lisbon, came through the ranks at Chelsea and spent a number of his formative years at the club before moving to Fulham two seasons ago. As it stands, our links to Bruma are questionable at best, but if the club are genuinely interested and move fast enough, a move could become a real possibility in no time.