Chelsea look to finalise deal for Leverkusen youngster

Those of you who aren’t a fan of the 80’s comedy Airplane or terrible tabloid puns will probably be less than enthused by the man who Chelsea appear to be on the brink of singing.

TalkSport are reporting that the Blues have had a bid of £20m accepted for Bayer Leverkusen’s Andre Schurrle after seeing a bid of £14m rejected last summer. Bayer's CEO, Wolfgang Holzhauser, and sporting director, Rudi Voller are apparently currently in London to finalise the arrangement and the 22-year-old looks set to be appearing at Stamford Bridge next season after scoring 11 goals for Sami Hyypia’s Leverkusen side this season in the Bundesliga.

Schurrle can play on either wing and as a centre forward and will contribute greatly to Chelsea’s already none-too-shabby forward line.

Whether the German international has been signed to play as the main forward in West London though is unclear. Chelsea already have the goalscoring talents of Demba Ba and Fernando Torres – don’t laugh! He’s scored 20 goals this season – on their books and have been constantly linked with huge names such as Edinson Cavani and Radomel Falcao over recent months. Is the signing of Schurrle an admission that even with Abramovich’s cash behind them Chelsea aren’t going to be securing the talents of Cavani or Falcao this summer? Or will the young German be deployed as a winger at the Bridge? With Eden Hazard, Juan Mata, Oscar, Victor Moses and Marko Marin already competing for an attacking midfield berth, we could see some departures this summer to make way for Schurrle.

And please, stop calling me Shirley.

Jack Johnson

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