Sami Khedira is not leaving Real Madrid this summer

Sami Khedira's name had been bandied about in connection with Chelsea fairly often this summer -- though not nearly as often as in connection with Arsenal -- but it looks like he will be staying at Real Madrid this year.

"He's not leaving, he's a Real Madrid player. He has a contract until June 30, 2015 and that's all there is to say."

-Carlo Ancelotti; source: Goal

Despite the media reports, I don't think Chelsea's interest was ever that great or even that concrete and it mostly seemed to hinge of Khedira being a self-confessed Mourinho "zealot" and Chelsea perhaps not wanting the player to go to Arsenal and thus hijacking the move.  Not that it matters, since Ancelotti wants to keep the midfielder, and has likely wagged an eyebrow or two at anybody in the Real front office who'd dare to oppose him.  You don't say no to Uncle Carlo.  Not when the eyebrows come out to play.

While Real Madrid do run the risk of losing the player next summer on a free, if there's one club in this world that can easily afford to let its players leave for free, it's Real Madrid.  At worst, they might have to skip a year in buying €80m players and slum it with just €60m talent.  Tragic, to be sure.