Official: Marin heads out on loan

Chelsea have announced that Marko Marin will be playing in Serie A next season. The diminutive German, who spent last season on loan at Sevilla, has agreed to a year-long spell at Fiorentina, where he hopefully won't be injured too often.

*They've also confirmed the Josh McEachran loan move to Vitesse, for what it's worth.

I repeat myself a lot when I'm talking about Marin, because he represents something very strange. He's sort of a living, breathing alternate history. What happens if we lose that penalty shootout in Munich? It's not Hazard and Oscar who shoulder Chelsea's creative burden -- we wouldn't have been able to afford or attract that kind of player without winning the European Cup that season. It's Marin. He was signed as insurance for a catastrophe that never arrived, and as a result he's spent his entire Chelsea career veering between his standard state of being (which is injured) and in a weird 'I shouldn't really be here' football purgatory.

And now he's off to Italy. Good luck, little buddy! Go save the world!