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Last night the Belgian media had some reports that Kevin De Bruyne might want to leave Chelsea, so naturally the German media is running stories about the hordes of clubs that would be interested in his services. The usual suspects are being linked to the Belgian, with Wolfsburg, Borussia Dortmund, and Werder Bremen all being connected by one publication or another. One of those reports hinted at a possible swap of players though, and it's certainly a fun idea to discuss.
According to Bild, Schalke 04 would have interest in De Bruyne, which is something we've heard several times before. While player swaps are talked about in the media all the time, they very rarely come to fruition. More often than not, they're simply speculation based on nothing, talk designed for the sole purpose of generating page clicks. Today's speculation is probably nothing more than that, and it's probably not something we should be talking overly seriously.
With that said,, the swap that Bild have suggested is certainly more interesting than most. They suggest the possibility of using a permanent transfer of De Bruyne (plus a big pile of cash) to help persuade the German side to part with Julian Draxler, which should make for an interesting discussion at the very least.
While Draxler and De Bruyne would likely both play in Chelsea's attacking band, the differences in what they bring to the table would make this a somewhat sensible move for the Blues. De Bruyne is a wonderful distributor of the ball, and his set piece delivery is second to none. He's also a dangerous shooter from outside the box.
Draxler is also a good creator of chances, though he makes far more runs into the box and generally prefers to shoot from a little closer to goal. He's also shown himself to be both a harder worker without the ball and far more skilled at winning it back, two things that would make him a better fit in multiple roles.
At the end of the day, I'd be pretty surprised if a Draxler/De Bruyne swap ever materialized, as Chelsea would probably get a better deal by selling De Bruyne and simply meeting the German's release clause. There's also the glut of attacking players to consider, especially with the way Lucas Piazon is playing on loan. Arsene Wenger supposedly wants Draxler though, and Chelsea have done illogical things before that seemed to have had little purpose other than frustrating a London rival.
