1 hour ago, Delnino said:

If Begovic does go we need to bring in a Homegrown GK and one thats willing to sit on the bench.

Pickford for Sunderland would be ideal but he'll want 1st team football so the options to replace him, especially in January look a bit short.

Unless Asmir wants out, I cant see us selling him in January, maybe in the summer though.

Pickford is out with I think long term knee injury 

1 hour ago, PedroMendez said:

Would adding Ake to the squad not remove the need for another home grown player, also would we not trust Eduardo as back up for the remainder of the season  

Ake still qualifies as an under 21 player so till next season won't be counted in the 25 Man squad when yes he would count as HG

Dont forget both Oscar and Mikel have left so there's two berths available there

1 hour ago, Richard P said:

Pickford is out with I think long term knee injury 

Don't think it's that long term. From memory I think he is due to return in February. As an aside my Sunderland supporting colleague tells me he has been on loan at 6 clubs and they moan about us!

I think begovic has been a big disappointment as a no.2...never convincing in his area and seems to concede sloppy goals...we got very lucky a couple of seasons ago when we had Courtois and Cech..has to be strongest keeping duo at any club since Carlo and Cech!

I'd sell Begovic in a heart beat.

Never lived up to his rep here, and you could replace him with somebody equally as good for half the price.

10 hours ago, PedroMendez said:

...would we not trust Eduardo as back up for the remainder of the season  

I wouldn't. Begovic is a quality back-up keeper and I doubt we could get anyone as good as him who is willing to sit on the bench most of the time. At least not in a January transfer window.

1 hour ago, Blue Exile said:

...you could replace him with somebody equally as good for half the price.

Who would those be?

3 hours ago, Maksimov said:

Who would those be?

Havent got a definitive list but Hes pretty average so won't be too hard finding somebody.

5 minutes ago, Blue Exile said:

Havent got a definitive list but Hes pretty average so won't be too hard finding somebody.

Good luck, it will be simple finding an experienced top quality keeper willing to play 5 or 6 times a season, then able to play at a high level in those 5 or 6 games after not playing for about a month. Simple.....

I don't think we will be able to find as good keeper with a top attitude. We should keep him until the summer at the very least... Courtois could be gone by summer.

5 minutes ago, dkw said:

Good luck, it will be simple finding an experienced top quality keeper willing to play 5 or 6 times a season, then able to play at a high level in those 5 or 6 games after not playing for about a month. Simple.....

Begovic signed didn't he?

Offer a player the chance to be part of title/CL challenging squad and be paid well too and you could fine a queue forming.

Doesn't need to sign for life, pretty sure lots of players would give 3 or 4 years of their career to be part of all that, bit part albeit.

Goalkeepers have longer careers than average for footballers, they can get that playing time they desire later if they want.

Can't see Begovic leaving unless Courtois signs a new contract.

Edited January 20, 20179 yr by the special one

I wouldnt trust Eduardo anyway, not if Tbo gets injured or sent off.

Especially towards the back end of the season when its still very much all to play for.

A replacement for Begovic thats home-grown and also willing and able to sit on the bench but perform when needed is going to be near impossible to find in January, especially with under 2 weeks left until the window closes.

If he wants to go in the summer so be it but for now, unless we've a capable replacement lined up, it makes no sense.

Shame we never have any decent keepers coming through the youth team who wouldn't mind being 2nd choice. Best we've probably got is Blackman but even he's pretty pants.

13 hours ago, The Brit said:

I think begovic has been a big disappointment as a no.2...never convincing in his area and seems to concede sloppy goals...we got very lucky a couple of seasons ago when we had Courtois and Cech..has to be strongest keeping duo at any club since Carlo and Cech!

Not really sure how he can be a big disappointment?  He's hardly played, but when he has (particularly when Tibo was out last season) he's been more than acceptable for a number 2.  If goalkeepers were more commanding than their number 1 counterpart, then they wouldn't be number 2.

What premier league sides have their number 2 as seasoned prem number 1?  I doubt many.  If Tibo went down long term we would still be in a great position.

 

3 hours ago, Blue Exile said:

Havent got a definitive list but Hes pretty average so won't be too hard finding somebody.

I'm not asking for a list. If it's not hard, then surely you'd be able to name one or two who fit the bill. International keeper, willing to sit on the bench for most of the season and do a decent job when needed, but never even mention the lack of playing time AND be fairly cheap. English keepers, are pretty much automatically disqualified as English players in general tend to be overpriced.

Where's the list at then.

If I was Begovic, and I was reasonably confident that Conte rated me, then I would certainly hang around until the summer and see if Courtois sticks around, or joins his family in Madrid, as the rags are saying ...

Begovic also has the chance of a PL Winners medal, and they don't exactly grow on trees !

Cant believe people are complaining about Begovic, we have the best backup GK in the Prem. He would be first choice for a lot of clubs Everton being one, he is better than Bravo at City. We are lucky to have him, he is too good just to sit on our bench.

Looks like Begovic is off Sky Sports breaking news saying we're preparing a bid for Celtic keeper Craig Gordon

£12m is the rumoured fee. 

£4m profit on a reserve goalkeeper, you don't see that too often. 

In truth I'm surprised he came to us, I thought Begovic would want to play every game... Maybe he thought Courtois wasn't going to stick around? 

Still, bit odd that we seem so willing to let so many players leave this month, even if they are fringe players. 

9 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

£12m is the rumoured fee. 

£4m profit on a reserve goalkeeper, you don't see that too often. 

In truth I'm surprised he came to us, I thought Begovic would want to play every game... Maybe he thought Courtois wasn't going to stick around? 

Still, bit odd that we seem so willing to let so many players leave this month, even if they are fringe players. 

Just hope we have players coming in to replace them.

Begovic

Ivan

Mikel

Oscar

That's tons of experience lost.

10 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

£12m is the rumoured fee. 

£4m profit on a reserve goalkeeper, you don't see that too often. 

In truth I'm surprised he came to us, I thought Begovic would want to play every game... Maybe he thought Courtois wasn't going to stick around? 

Still, bit odd that we seem so willing to let so many players leave this month, even if they are fringe players. 

He probably always knew he would be a back up and would step in for odd matches when Courtois is injured/suspended and cup games and he doubled his salary when he came here. I think he was on around £30k p/w at Stoke despite being their no.1 so he probably thought to himself to get a good wage packet for a year or 2 and secure himself more financially before going back to play regular football at an inferior team. I thought this might be the case when he joined us. Money speaks a lot in football.

It's funny that apparentl Begovic "wants to leave for first-team football." I have some trouble believing this statement, I'm not sure what he was expecting when he signed for Chelsea in the first place!

4 hours ago, KrazyTea said:

It's funny that apparentl Begovic "wants to leave for first-team football." I have some trouble believing this statement, I'm not sure what he was expecting when he signed for Chelsea in the first place!

ditto.. should have at least wait till the summer to pick up his epl medal or maybe trophy/medal don't actually matter that much for players??