A rumor that started in the Mail and has since proliferated into the rest of the football media tells us that AFC Bournemouth, formerly the home of Nathan Aké have approached Chelsea with a £10m bid for Asmir Begović. Chelsea then swiftly rejected said bid.
You could be forgiven — not easily, but could be — for forgetting who Begović is; after all, the backup goalkeeper has made just four appearances all season, all in the League Cup and FA Cup. (We do in fact have a third goalkeeper as well, the Portuguese veteran Eduardo.) But with Thibaut Courtois healthy and in-form, Begović's prospects don’t really extend beyond similar action the rest of the season. Given his quality and age, it’s hardly surprising to see him pop up in the rumor mill — he was regularly linked with Everton over the summer, for example.
Begović is probably too good for a backup goalkeeper and we should be lucky to be able to count on someone of his proven Premier League quality. He will no doubt be linked with moves away in the summer and something might even come to pass — a folow-up story from the Mail claims we’ve put a £12m price tag on him, while the Telegraph says the “door ajar” for a future deal — but we’re not silly enough to sell in January, not when we’re in the middle of a title race.
(I hope.)