The ink was barely dry on CAS’s ruling that Real Madrid’s transfer ban had been reduced to just one window (the upcoming January one) before the Spanish media were back it. Christmas come early for them, no doubt.

The radio station Onda Cero started this latest round of Thibaut Courtois rumors with a report earlier this week, which has now morphed into covers and full-page spreads on other media outlets based in the Spanish capital.

Onda Cero’s report claims it as “fact” that Real are in discussions with Courtois’s representatives, even though such discussions would require club permission, which is surely not something Chelsea would be interested in doing — especially following recent reports of a contract extension in the works and Courtois being “receptive” to it (along with Diego Costa, another frequent target of Spanish transfer rumors, whose contract is also expiring in 2019).

Perhaps Mr. Agent is just doing his work and hurrying this offer along. Or perhaps there is something here. This story would’ve played out much better for Real just a few months ago, when Chelsea weren’t winning and everybody wasn’t getting along so well and so on and so forth. But of course Real were banned from making any new signings at the time, so that would’ve been a hard rumor to sell. But now we’re all friends, so why on Earth would Chelsea want to sell?

Of course, you never truly know in football, so let’s get this extension done.