Chelsea have drawn short straw as swap deal agreed for Schurrle

Chelsea have been long-term admirers of Andre Schurrle and already had a €20m offer rebuffed by Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.

Despite signing Eden Hazard, Oscar, Marko Marin and Victor Moses to bolster the club’s attacking options, alongside Demba Ba in January to play up front, this desire to bring the German to Stamford Bridge has not deteriorated.

And a deal appears to have finally been reached, with Chelsea looking to have drawn the short straw, such was their aim to capture Schurrle.

Reports are indicating that Chelsea will pay £12m and offer exciting Belgian Kevin de Bruyne in part exchange, which on the surface seems to represent an amazing bit of business from Sami Hyypia’s Leverkusen.

Schurrle has scored 10 goals in all competitions for Leverkusen this season from an inside forward position and could start somewhere similar for Chelsea, interchanging sides with Eden Hazard, which would allow Juan Mata to start more centrally to influence play more effectively.

The good thing about him is that he is not afraid to try his luck from distance, which offers something different from Hazard and Mata, as he can be classified as more of a striker playing in a deeper forward role, rather than Chelsea’s current batch of natural midfielders filling the positions.

However, De Bruyne remains a major prospect for the future and has done his reputation no harm in a loan stint at Werder Bremen.

His versatility and ability to play box-to-box could have remained an asset for Chelsea moving forward and the difference between his ability to that of Schurrle does not appear to be worth £12m.

In Schurrle’s favour is that he could also lead the line if required, more like the false number nine that is becoming slightly more common in world football, although Chelsea can welcome back Romelu Lukaku to also bolster their striking options.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.