Here's a midfield rumour that could make some sense

Wayne Rooney's the focus of most of today's talk, but another, lesser rumour was making the rounds earlier on. Granted, it's sourced from TalkSPORT, so most of it is entirely nonsensical, but there's the germ of a good idea buried within.

The rumour goes something like this: Chelsea will sell Mikel to Galatasaray and then replace him with Bayern Munich's Luiz Gustavo. This is something of a non-starter, mostly because I don't see a way for Galatasaray to buy Mikel, nor do I see a reason for the Blues to sell. But the other half... the other half holds some promise.

With Oriol Romeu (hereafter known as 'Cookies') on loan at Valencia, Chelsea only have one real holding midfielder in John Obi Mikel, and they've already been sniffing around midfield reinforcements if the talk about Daniele de Rossi is to be believed. If the Blues really are going after someone who can play as a holder (or in the pivot, as he usually does with Bayern, Luiz Gustavo is a fine choice. He did superbly in Bayern's run to the Champions League final in 2011/12 (he was suspended for the match itself, however), he's 26 later this month and so just going into his prime, and shouldn't be too expensive.

Why would Bayern be willing to sell? Mostly because they have better options available. Javi Martinez rather understandably displaced Gustavo from the starting lineup last season, and the addition of Thiago Alcantara has only complicated the midfield situation further. Breaking into Bayern's midfield is basically an impossible task at the moment, and Gustavo could get more playing time and more money elsewhere. The Bavarians, meanwhile, could get some money for a rarely-used player, although I'm not positive that Pep Guardiola will be ok with getting rid of cover at defensive midfield.

In other words, despite the nature of the source, this is one of those deals that could easily make sense for everyone involved. It's nothing to hang your hat on, but this is the sort of move that we should be thinking hard about -- if we're not already involved in already.