Chelsea supposedly chasing Spurs fullback

What's that?  You wanted more transfer rumors?  Excellent!

This next one has spread from the pages of the Star and Standard to ESPN and beyond over the last 24 hours or so.  Manchester City had been rumored to be in the hunt already, but now Chelsea supposedly have entered the chase as well for Tottenham Hotspur left-back Danny Rose.

Once a bit of a joke, Rose has managed to have himself a pretty decent season at Spurs, staying healthy and beating out competition from ex-Swansea man Ben Davies.  Does that make him a prime target?  The rumors would have you believing so.  In case it wasn't obvious, he is English, though he has yet to win a senior cap.

Now, before you say something about Ryan Bertrand, let's remember that Bertie (who's actually a year older) wanted to be first-choice rather than a backup, and we let him leave to pursue such ambitions.  Rose actually had quite a few loans, too, before finally establishing his credentials at Spurs this season.  Would he want to leave now just to play second fiddle to Cesar Azpilicueta (assuming Branislav Ivanovic remains locked in at right back)?  I sort of doubt it.  Maybe it's all just a ploy by his agent for yet another improved contract.  (Rose did sign a new deal at the start of the season.)

Chelsea have tenuously been linked with other left backs as well -- West Ham's Aaron Cresswell, Valencia's Jose Luis Gaya, Augsburg's Baba Rahman come to mind -- so perhaps we're making inquiries along such lines.  Filipe Luis is often brought up as someone who might leave this summer, even though he has reaffirmed his commitment to Chelsea repeatedly, and if that should happen, we would definitely need some reinforcement.  Unless we turn to the academy of course and utilize the likes of Nathan Ake (though he's much better as a midfielder) or Jay Dasilva (though he's just a baby) or Todd Kane (though that's probably just my pipe-dream).  Tomas Kalas and Andreas Christensen are two further options to give us depth, if perhaps not consistent quality.