The Schürrle train keeps rolling right along

What started with the fear that Chelsea would be doing something incredibly stupid -- like selling Kevin de Bruyne to Bayer Leverkusen as part exchange for Andre Schürrle -- has now morphed into a cash-only deal that sees extremely quote to fruition. Let's go to Rafa Honigstein for the newest details:

Schürrle update, via @tim_roehn : Leverkusen official expected in London on Friday to conclude deal. Chelsea and AS have agreed 5y deal

— raphael honigstein (@honigstein) April 16, 2013

So, if that's true, the deal's already far enough along that Chelsea and Schürrle are being allowed to talk. Chelsea have, apparently, refused to sell de Bruyne, which is good because he's already turning into a pretty amazing player. So, if the reports are right, we could be seeing €22 million go in Leverkusen's direction and a shiny new Schürrle at Stamford Bridge.

With Chelsea's ability to finish in the top four still in some doubt and the midfield in need of patching, I'm not convinced this is the wisest move, but there's no denying that Schürrle's a magnificent player. This isn't like the Marko Marin situation from last year -- Schürrle's been consistently excellent for years now and although I'm not sure he'll end up first choice anywhere his acquisition will mean the addition of a pretty excellent rotational player. As long as this transfer doesn't cost us de Bruyne permanently and we have the money, I'm ok with this.

PS:

Just talked to agent of #KDB. Told me: "#Bayer is a very good option (...) Kevin could replace #Schurrle (...) CFC will not sell KDB"

— Tim Röhn (@Tim_Roehn) April 16, 2013