Chelsea FC Transfer Rumors: Leicester City's Jamie Vardy, Tottenham Hotspur's Mousa Dembele

Chelsea set to gazump Real Madrid for Jaamie van Vardystelrooy.  That's the headline I would've gone with.  Instead the Mirror chose something about £40m spent on two evenly priced targets from two different teams.  These sorts of rumors about double swoops usually involve just the two teams, the buyers and the sellers; this time our supposed targets play for different teams.  Whatever.  If two's company, three is a party, right?

First up then is the man who's having a once in a lifetime moment at Leicester.  In business terms, they should be looking to sell high.  Would Vardy be worth more than the £20m claimed by the Mirror at a later point?  I highly doubt it.  He may look half of Diego Costa age, despite actually being a year older, but the 28-year-old Vardy doesn't exactly represent a prime long-term investment.* He's also been linked with Manchester United; let them spend.

* Unless of course Leicester make the top four and then win the Champions League next season.  But by then it'll be too late to buy him now.

The second half of the £40m min-spree is Spurs midfielder Mousa Dembele, who gets linked to Chelsea as part of transfer window tradition since 2012 or so, when he was still at Fulham.  He's recently come back into the side thanks to injuries, and we might even see start on Sunday, but we're a bit late for this boat.  The time to buy was 2012, but we chose to go with Oscar and we should choose similarly now.  Also, £20m is outrageous for someone who's rumored price in the summer was just £12m.

In summary, neither of these are likely to happen.  They don't pass the smell test, neither in terms of sourcing nor sensibilities.  Buying more stopgaps is a terrible idea anyway.  Either spend big on someone truly world class, or give youth a chance.  Please.