COMMENT: There's still time, Txiki. Maybe not to have him available for Sunday's visit of Chelsea...
... but can you imagine Jose Mourinho's face if Kevin de Bruyne makes it to the Etihad? And all set to put pen to paper on a Manchester City contract?
With the Abdul Rahman Baba deal dragging on and having to duck the flak over the Eva Carneiro blow-up, seeing De Bruyne in City's director's box on Sunday would leave the Blues manager seething.
For many in the game, it's a matter of when, not if, the VfL Wolfsburg star signs with City. And he'll return to England with something to prove.
It was only last month that Mourinho questioned De Bruyne's bottle, claiming the Belgian didn't have the 'necessaries' to make it at an elite club.
But let's flip that claim on its head. Could it be that De Bruyne is simply a young footballer who wants to play? That rotations are not for him? At another club, under another manager, such ambition would be applauded.
And what of the Courtois factor? Could it be that Mourinho was actually looking down the road at the time of offloading De Bruyne? How would he and Thibaut Courtois share the same locker room, day in, day out, given their involvement in a very public 'love triangle'?
It's a struggle to match up Mourinho's claims with what we saw from De Bruyne last season. You can't question his big match mentality. A two-goal performance against German champs Bayern Munich is proof of that. De Bruyne ripped Bayern apart that day in January, scoring twice in a famous 4-1 win. The Belgian, standing at almost 6 feet, displayed everything needed to succeed in the Premier League - power, pace, intimidation - it was all there and had Pep Guardiola and his players rattled. Think Gareth Bale, Tottenham, and those games against Inter Milan. It was a different performance, but had the same jaw-dropping effect.
And this is what Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano, City's two football powerbrokers, will be counting on. After navigating the testing negotiations with Liverpool for Raheem Sterling and nicking Fabian Delph away from Aston Villa, getting the De Bruyne deal over the line would end all doubts about the Spanish duo's ability to work the very top end of the transfer market.
De Bruyne is a matchwinner - and a gamechanger. The Belgian's arrival would instantly improve an already exciting attack - and also add to the star power of the Premier League.
Arjen Robben. the Bayern Munich winger, lamented as much this week: "Since I've been at Bayern, I have seen the Bundesliga grow. The football is alive here. I don't want it to become lesser."
After seeing Bayern lose Bastian Schweinsteiger to Manchester United, to surrender another star name to the Premier League would be a big blow for the Bundesliga.
Just as with Sterling and Delph, City have cleared a path to get a free run at De Bruyne - and in the process quietly turned the screw on Wolfsburg.
The ambitious spending of the past 18 months is catching up on VfL. There was even talk of a revolt from small shareholders at Volkswagen, angered by the amount of money being poured into the club for signings like De Bruyne and Andre Schurrle.
Soriano and Begiristain have furthered boxed in Wolfsburg with their contract offer to De Bruyne - a mooted £230,000-a-week. Any talk of improving terms at Wolfsburg's end would send Volkswagen shareholders into meltdown. City know they hold almost all the cards.
The one joker in the pack is next summer's Euros in France. Belgium coach Marc Wilmots has urged De Bruyne to stay in Wolfsburg, where he knows he is guaranteed a place in Dieter Hecking's team.
But the money on the table and the chance to prove an old coach wrong will be difficult to resist.
For City, Kevin De Bruyne is a signing to win the title. And given his past history in England, the ramifications for Chelsea and Mourinho would be huge - the beginning of which could all happen this Sunday at the Etihad.
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Kevin de Bruyne: What the stars say about imminent Man City signing
