Real Madrid expecting Rüdiger, Chelsea not encouraged — report

Antonio Rüdiger continues to edge closer to Real Madrid and further away from Chelsea, at least as far as his future beyond this season’s concerned. (Obviously, he’s quite committed to the Blues for this season.)

In fact, according to the Telegraph, Real Madrid’s players are already “expecting” his arrival in the summer (but not in January, to be clear).

How might the Telegraph be privy to such thoughts? Who knows; though former Chelsea players Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois already play there, as does Toni’s good friend David Alaba.

And it would also be the logical and most expected conclusion to this situation that has been trending away from our favor for some time now. Along those lines, the report adds that Rüdiger’s entourage have given “no encouragement” to Chelsea over future negotiations, while Chelsea evidently remain unwilling to meet the 28-year-old’s wage demands.

Meanwhile, Andreas Christensen’s contract renewal saga also seems to be stuck in neutral. Which great it might pop into eventually — first? second? reverse? — is anyone’s guess, but for what it’s worth (probably pretty little) Sky Sport Italia claim it will be sometime this week. The transfer window also opens this week(end), so this is a pretty safe guess from Sky.

Christensen has recently changed his representation to Kin Agency, who also look after Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, which may or may not bode well for us. Barcelona continue to keep an eye on the situation, as per Diario Sport, while Bayern Munich, Juventus and various Premier League sides are also supposedly interested