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Transfer rumours come in three buckets: The plausible, the crazy and the actually illegal. Guess which class today's Thibaut Courtois to Real Madrid rumour is in? Yep.
Spanish Radio is claiming that the on-loan Chelsea goalkeeper has signed a pre-agreement with Real to take him to the Santiago Bernabeu at the end of the 2015/16 season. Pre-agreements are common in football -- Nemanja Vidic has just signed one to take him to Inter Milan at the end of the season -- but there's something important that Cadena Ser appear to be missing: following the Bosman ruling, pre-agreements are only legal six months before the end of a player's contract.
When does Chelsea's contract with Courtois expire? 27 months from now. In other words, even if the reports are true -- and Real Madrid have denied any interest in Courtois already -- it would be Real in trouble, not Chelsea Football Club. And there's just about no chance of the rumour being true (as Sport Witness point out, the Spanish media tried a similar trick with David de Gea two days ago).
Rest easy in your beds, Courtois fans. There might be trouble coming, but this surely isn't it.
