Chelsea, Real Madrid at ‘advanced stage’ of Courtois negotiations — report

Thibaut Courtois flew down to Spain this weekend, but for now, it’s strictly for pleasure, to take in a bit of well-earned vacation in Tenerife after his performances at the World Cup.

Soon however the Spanish adventure is likely to take a strong turn towards business, with the expectation slowly building towards his eventual transfer to Real Madrid. Nothing’s set in stone yet, but talks are apparently at an advanced stage — and Terreur’s reporting is just a very small sample of the stories that are flying around and across Europe regarding Corutois’ future at the moment. Some are true, some are less so, but they all point to Courtois leaving and Chelsea more or less accepting that outcome.

Chelsea were said to be asking for upwards of €50m for Courtois initially, but more recent reports have dropped that fee to just €35m. Expecting more than that may be unreasonable for a player who’s made it quite clear that he wants to go back to Spain eventually, has one year left on his contract, and has rejected at least one contract extension offer that would’ve made him the joint-highest paid goalkeeper in the league, if not the world.

He may claim that he has no problem coming back to play for Chelsea next season, but without a new contract, the club should have every problem with that. As Terreur said, a transfer at this point seems to be a more of a matter of “when” rather than “if”, and is simply gated by Chelsea finding an appropriate replacement.

Thanks for the seasonos, Thibaut?