Just when you think the rumor mill cannot surprise you any longer, here come The Sun to one-up their own rumor from a couple days ago. Back then, the purported transfer opportunity was Chelsea swapping Cesc Fàbregas (and £50m) for Juventus's Leonardo Bonucci. Depending on your disposition towards Cesc's usefulness, that was either a deal and a steal (insofar as anything costing £50m can be a deal and a steal) or an outrageous affront to footballing sensibilities.
But don't worry, you no longer have to contemplate that one. Contemplate this one instead.
EXCLUSIVE: Antonio Conte willing to sell Eden Hazard in exchange for Leonardo Bonucci https://t.co/Atvie2uYvA pic.twitter.com/Ej2kjiOz4z
— The Sun Football ⚽ (@TheSunFootball) October 9, 2016
Look, it says EXCLUSIVE. That's how you know it's real.
The Sun would have us believe that we're trying to save costs — even though Abramovich has supposedly earmarked "more than £60m" for Bonucci — and so we want to swap a much more valuable asset in Hazard instead of Cesc. Except Juventus don't think Hazard's a good fit (oohhhh...kayyy...) and they'd instead prefer Fàbregas as some sort of second coming of Pirlo. It's unclear how that would help us in any way in this potential transfer — let's swap the dude you don't want instead of the one you do want; yeah! — but I fear we've already wasted too many braincells on this nonsense.
In fact, if anything, this makes me believe even more that we'll never get Bonucci and we'll just have to find someone similar to fill that defensive hole.