Xabi Alonso reportedly on his way to Bayern Munich

Breaking and spreading like wildfire, there are rumors abound from within the Spanish press that Xabi Alonso is close to a transfer to Bayern Munich. First broke by Spanish language news channel La Sexta, the newsspread being picked up by both Radio Marca and the Spanish tabloids within minutes.

It's difficult to know exactly what to make of this. La Sexta's reputation varies depending on who you talk to from reliable to downright silly, and nothing is coming out of Germany to corroborate the news. Given the relative lack of rumor reporting coming out on Bayern Munich from the German side of things lately, it's no unsurprising, as we saw during the Mehdi Benatia transfer saga in recent weeks.

As for the player, there's no doubt Xabi Alonso is one of the best registas in the world ad would immediately make a huge difference to this Bayern Munich team. His age, 32, belies that he's basically a short term rental which might make sense for this season given the injury questions surrounding Bastian Schweinsteiger, and Thiago, and that Javi Martinez is out for the rest of the calendar year. The only glaring problem is Pep Guardiola spent all of last year grooming Philipp Lahm for that role, and has spent the pre-season grooming both Lahm and Gianluca Gaudino for that role. A drastic addition four days before the transfer deadline isn't Bayern Munich's style, and even if they moved ahead with this kind of a deal, it's a truly puzzling move given the depth of defensive and box-to-box midfielders Bayern Munich have at their disposal right now.

What we do know is we're on the roller coaster now, so strap in and enjoy the next four days of the transfer window. It might just be a whirlwind ride on this one.

UPDATE: Sport BILD reporter Christian Falk is reporting on Twitter that the interest in Xabi Alonso is real. Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.