More Kevin De Bruyne rumors surface, this time involving a loan

There have been some rumors out of Germany involving Kevin De Bruyne and Bayer Leverkuusen over the last several days, and most of them didn't make a ton of sense. Graham touched on them yesterday, and pointed out quite a few reasons why they were kind of silly.

This morning, Raphael Honigstein had some information on the subject for us, and frankly, it's a bit more plausible:

Schürrle to Chelsea not yet done, but very close. €20m. And De Bruyne will go on loan to Leverkusen - NOT a part exchange.

— raphael honigstein (@honigstein) April 5, 2013

While I'm certainly not ready to buy into this bit of information, it makes far more sense than the stuff that was coming out of the German press in the past several days. We know Chelsea have had a serious interest in Schurrle in the past, and 20 million Euros would seem a fairly reasonable return.

This still seems to contrast with the comments made by De Bruyne's agent last week though, indicating that they didn't yet know what the immediate future held for the player. If Chelsea and Bayer were already more or less in agreement on a move, De Bruyne and his agent would almost certainly be in the loop. It's possible that the agent is just staying quiet on the deal until it is done, but it's certainly worth considering when reading these sorts of rumors.

From De Bruyne's perspective, this move would likely make a fair bit of sense. I think many of us feels he's probably ready for Chelsea's first team, but if he's going to be on loan again, Leverkusen would seem to be a fairly ideal club. They're a far better side than Werder Bremen, and they look like they'll be playing in the Champions League next season. It would be a big step up for De Bruyne, and one that would likely be an ideal stepping stone to the Chelsea first team. Now that Honigstein is reporting something sensible, this rumor is probably worth paying a bit more attention to.