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Reports suggest that Chelsea could be about to pull off an unlikely bit of transfer business with The Daily Star alleging that Atletico Madrid are set to offer them their 20-goal topscorer Diego Costa and pay the London side £8 million in order to land on-loan goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
The Spanish side have loaned Courtois from Chelsea for the past three seasons, but are now trying earnestly to tie him down to a permanent deal. This has led to reports that they are even willing to part with one of their prized assets in order to secure the Belgian.
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Atletico are rumoured to have made two part exchange bids for Courtois, offering either Costa or Koke in exchange for the goalkeeper. Just two weeks on from Costa and Koke being linked with big money moves to the Premier League, the pair are now said to be makeweights in a Courtois deal. Costa has scored 20 goals in 23 La Liga appearances this season and was linked with a move to Chelsea in January.
The club are known to be keen on a new striker, with current forwards Fernando Torres, Demba Ba and Samuel Eto’o flattering to decieve, but whether they are keen enough to part with Courtois remains to be seen.
Having been on loan at Atletico for a number of years, and developing into a top goalkeeper it is coming to the time for Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho to make a decision over the long term future of the youngster. The Belgian is rated as one of the best young goalkeepers in the world, but Chelsea’s current incumbent Petr Cech is just 31 and has shown no sign of old age in his performances.
Mourinho is no stranger to such a dilemma. Upon bringing Cech to the club in 2004, the Chelsea boss displaced Carlo Cudicini in the side, who had been one of the sides most impressive performers before the arrival of Abramovic and his millions. Whether he is willing to do the same with Courtois and Cech is unclear, but the Portuguese boss has repeatedly stressed that Courtois is not for sale, hinting at a long term plan that the Belgian is part of.
