Depending on how much you trust a report from The Sun's Rob Beasley -- and given his supposed inside access, etc. it may be ok to do so -- it looks like Chelsea have finally figured out a deal for Filipe Luis.
The news did break rather oddly on Twitter (even by Twitter standards), thanks to Beasley's son scooping his old man.
Stand by for breaking news!!!!
— ROB (@1RobBeasley) July 9, 2014
Breaking news:Atletico's Felipe Luis will sign for Chelsea in a deal that could eventually cost them £20 million !
— josh (@Jjs_beasley) July 9, 2014
Rob Beasley then clarifies the wording on the price, even though the back page of Thursday's edition of The Sun carries the full £20m.
@pacesettaCFC @Jjs_beasley It will rise to nearly 20m if he does well and Chelsea win some big trophies! Which is a certainty right!!!?
— ROB (@1RobBeasley) July 9, 2014
#BLuis RT @suttonnick Thursday's Sun back page - "Bluis - Chelsea land £20m replacement for Cole" pic.twitter.com/PX6tHHZiWL
— Sid Celery (@sidcelery) July 9, 2014
So, chances are that the price is somewhere between our initially rumored bid of £12m and the buyout (€24-25m/£20m). Our second bid was rumored to be around £15m, so anywhere near there (plus incentives) sounds reasonable enough I suppose. If you do need convincing of the left back's abilities, the above video should be a good start. Further viewing may be found here (vs. Villareal, vs. Getafe)
While his age is a slight concern -- he is one month shy of 29 -- if he can consistently produce all-around attacking and defending displays like the one against Barcelona on a regular basis in the Premier League this season, we will have just markedly increased our chances at a Premier League title. Which cannot be a bad thing. In fact, quite the opposite.
After all, winning is our aim.