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According to DHnet, Wolfsburg and Chelsea have now reached an agreement on the compensation owed for the transfer of Kevin De Bruyne. The paper is reporting that the two sides have agreed on a price just over €21 million, with an additional €3 million that the Blues could see from national team based incentives.
Chelsea acquired the player for just €8 million two years ago, and reportedly received about €450,000 for his season-long loan to Werder Bremen. If the DH figures are accurate, that would be a pretty nice return on Chelsea's investment.
From a FFP accounting standpoint, this would provide a significant boost to our books for the season. After subtracting the amortized portion of De Bruyne's transfer fee that's already been accounted for, Mourinho's side will see a profit of €16.4 million added to this season's accounts, in addition to the wages saved for the second half of the season. Just to put that into perspective, that's more than half a season of Fernando Torres and David Luiz would have counted after buying them in 2011. If the Blues see someone they like on the market (say, some really tall guy playing in Portugal), they will have nothing to worry about in the short term if the De Bruyne sale goes through as reported.
It's unfortunate that it now appears De Bruyne's future lies away from Chelsea, but it's certainly nice that we'll be making a fair bit of money from this transfer because we moved for him early. For those complaining about Chelsea buying too much young talent, this would be a perfect example of why that isn't an actual problem.
