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Hello Everyone! Welcome to Dispatches from #Batcountry. It's a place where the rumors are made up and the sources don't matter. In this daily series we examine ridiculous transfer rumors found on the internet and tell you why you shouldn't believe them. Today's rumor comes to us via the fine folks at Sports Direct, who suggest that Chelsea could be launching a £15 million bid for Tottenham Hotspur right back Kyle Walker.
The above linked article features no quotes and seems to be based purely upon the fact that Chelsea like to buy players that they don't really need (OHAI Marko Marin!). Last January, Chelsea purchased Spanish right back Cesar Azpilicueta who came in and performed pretty well for the Blues in the Europa League-winning campaign. In addition, Chelsea have a number of other players capable of playing right back including Branislav Ivanovic, Tomas Kalas, and, in a few seasons, Wallace.
Last season Kyle Walker established himself as the best young right back in the Premier League. The Tottenham Hotspur youngster finally managed to combine his raw athleticism with something resembling playing football and molded himself into an excellent marauding fullback. Since the start of 2013 Walker has been virtually flawless and many of the mistakes that seemed to plague him for the previous season and a half seemed to disappear. The fine season he had seems to have been enough to put him on Chelsea's radar, but there is absolutely no way that Tottenham are willing to part with him.
Let's look at the rumor itself for a minute. Honestly, £15 million for Walker would certainly be an acceptable price in my mind. Sure, more would be better, but £15 million represents a good profit and we could easily secure a competent replacement (like Daniel Opare) with that amount.
Regardless of the price being adequate in my mind, there is absolutely no way that Spurs management sells Kyle Walker at this point. Sure Adam Smith may be good enough to play in the Premier League and Kyle Naughton isn't completely horrendous, but Walker is one of the best in the league and shifting him to a rival club makes absolutely zero sense.
The deal makes no sense for Chelsea either. Azpilicueta is a Spanish international and a damn good football player. He's about 8 months older than Kyle Walker and has a ton of experience. It would require a stunning lack of confidence in Azpilicueta for this deal to make any sense for the Blues.
So, in summation, this is a rumor from an article that has no quotes. The rumored transfer fee seems reasonable, but on the whole the deal makes absolutely no sense for either club. Both would be better off standing pat on the assets they have at the right back position and saving everyone the trouble.
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