Spanish Giants Eye Summer Raid On Chelsea

The January transfer window may have slammed shut but clubs will still be working hard behind the scenes at identifying targets for the summer, so we’ll bring you all the latest news, gossip and rumours. Today, interest in Thibaut Courtois mounts.

Chelsea face a tough fight to hang on to highly-rated young goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with Real Madrid the latest Spanish giant to express their interest in keeping him in La Liga, according to the Mirror.

The 21-year-old has forged an excellent reputation in Spain over the past two-and-a-half years while on loan at Atletico Madrid, with his superb displays between the sticks helping guide the club to the last 16 of the Champions League as well as keep them joint top of the La Liga table this season.

The Mirror claim that Real Madrid are now ready to make a bid to try and lure him to the Bernabeu in the summer with their interest initially instigated by Jose Mourinho back in 2011.  The ‘Special One’ was aware of Courtois’ ability and apparently instructed Real to compile a detailed dossier on the Belgian while he was on loan at their city rivals.

The newspaper suggests that Barcelona are also showing a keen interest but Real chiefs have been suitably impressed by the players performances and will now make their move at the end of the season. A supposed ‘source’ told the paper:

“As soon as Courtois arrived on loan at Atletico from Chelsea, a file was opened on him under instructions from Mourinho.

“The information built up is exhaustive and Courtois is on Madrid’s list of targets, despite the presence of Iker Casillas and Diego Lopez in Carlo Ancelotti’s squad.”

It’s certainly going to be interesting to see what happens to Courtois this summer. The youngster is already an established first team player at one of the world’s best as well as a 14-cap Belgian international, so it’s unlikely he’ll want to return to Chelsea and play second-fiddle to Petr Cech next season.

However, the Czech international is still playing at the peak of his powers so Mourinho is going to have a tough decision on his hands this summer. Courtois has two years left on his contract, so theoretically, the Blues could force him to stay and fight Cech for the No.1 jersey for at least one season, but it’s never wise to keep an unhappy player against his will.

While Madrid and Barca are both believed to be interested, there have been widespread reports suggesting Mourinho would be willing to use Courtois as bait to land Atletcio Madrid striker Diego Costa. The Portuguese coach would surely rather deal with Atletico than either of Spain’s ‘big two’, particularly if it meant he got his hands on Costa, so a player-plus-cash swap deal could suit all parties.

While a potential swap deal involving Courtois and Costa may have got the Chelsea fans excited, here’s a video showing some unexpected Chelsea transfer news. These unsuspecting Blues supporters didn’t realise they were being pranked by a life-long Manchester United fan into claiming they knew things about players that didn’t even exist, check it out: