Stamford Bridge side prepare offer for Bayer Leverkusen forward.
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German source Der Westen claim that Chelsea will use Belgian international Kevin De Bruyne as bait in their continued pursuit of Bayer Leverkusen forward Andre Schurrle.
Chelsea loaned out De Bruyne to the Werder Bremen on a season long deal and the young attacker has impressed whilst at the Bundesliga side and given that the 21 year old faces a fight just to get into the Blues first team set-up a permanent move to Leverkusen may tempt the former Racing Genk man.
De Bruyne has been an ever present this season and is one of the Bundesliga leading assist makers, creating eight goals as well as weighing in with six himself.
By all accounts Bayer Leverkusen are now interested in signing the Chelsea attacker so the West London side will look to use the player in a part exchange offer for Schurrle.
Chelsea may well feel the need to beef up their attacking options and the German international has been in fine form this term, helping his side to third place in the Bundesliga. Schurrle has scored nine goals this season and provided seven assists but has perhaps saved his best form for his national team, scoring six goals in 17 appearances, of which 12 were from the bench.
This source claims that Leverkusen want upwards of €25m (£21m) for Schurrle so a move that would include De Bruyne may just succeed.
With Fernando Torres continually struggling for form and Demba Ba managing just one goal in his last ten appearances for Chelsea there is certainly scope for improvements up front. Indeed the club may well elect to offer Romelu Lukaku a more prominent role in the first team after a successful loan spell at West Brom.