Transfer stories are like buses: you can go ages without seeing one and then two come (nearly) at once.
Nearly a month went by without a story involving Andreas Christensen and a return to Chelsea until SportBild pulled up with one on Wednesday, and now Kicker park themselves right alongside them with their own on Thursday.
The German magazine had a brief chat with the club’s director of football Max Eberl about the Danish international, and he basically echoed what was being said in SportBild on Wednesday.
Asked what the chances were of the 20-year-old committing to an extended stay at Borussia Mönchengladbach, Eberl was fairly straightforward.
He said: “Andreas has developed a lot with us. Chelsea have also seen this, and are therefore considering returning him to their squad. However, he feels at home with us. We are in intensive talks on all levels.
“With Chelsea, with Andreas, with his family. Anyone looking at the football market will know the possibility of a purchase is zero, but maybe there are other creative ways that make it possible for him to stay in Gladbach and develop with us.”
Barring an actual transfer, there’s only one option left for the Bundesliga side, and that’s convincing Antonio Conte and those in charge of transfers at Stamford Bridge to extend the loan further.
Whether that is by one, two or three years, like in Juan Cuadrado’s case, is the big question, and considering Chelsea, who are now playing three at the back, have a ready made centre-back option coming back to their club in 2017, Max and co. are going to need to be very creative indeed.
