Oblak would be great, I wonder if we could maybe persuade them with Courtois plus a boat load of cash. 

Courtois gets to live in madrid.

Atlético get a top keeper with strong ties to their fans. 

Real Madrid get screwed over.

We end up with arguably the best keeper in the world. 

Wins all around! 

Oblak, if the rumours about an €80m release clause are true, trigger it. Much better keeper than Alisson IMO & the additional price for him would be justified.

 

Unfortuantely, I can’t see the club paying it!

Why would he want to come here?

26 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Why would he want to come here?

I’d like to come up with a million and one fantasy reasons but in reality; money. 

If Courtois is not staying try to get Kepa from Athletic Club, he is 23 and a very good keeper, plus Athletic would rather sell to us than to Real Madrid.

4 minutes ago, RMH said:

If Courtois is not staying try to get Kepa from Athletic Club, he is 23 and a very good keeper, plus Athletic would rather sell to us than to Real Madrid.

Good shot stopper. But he's only 185cms and has an 80m buyout clause that Bilbao will make us pay.

Sadly i think Trapp or Oblak are unrealistic targets as i doubt we could get either. I still think (hope) tha the Alisson price is teh exception and not a new norm. Significantly over priced for a keeper compared to the value of his peers.

Pope actually would be a decent choice. My lad has actually trained with him and he has a surprisingly lot of technical ability and can certainly cope with the style of play we are expecting from Sarri. Financially he could be in budget, it would still be seen as a step up and he is still showing potential to be developed which from the initial soundbites appears to be the type of players that Sarri wants to work with.

Oblak or Allison

Pope for me

fantastic prospect, young, and English he would be our no1 for many years to come 

I don’t see any goalkeeper good with feet in that list, that’s very important for Sarri’s teamplay. One option could be Kepa.

Edited July 19, 20187 yr by Raff_Sarrista

I've went for Donnarumma, Tbo is practically in Madrid so no way we'll keep him and lose him for free next summer.

I wouldnt touch Pickford, Cech or Schemichel, theyre all massive, massive downgrades on what we have.

 

Leicester have just bought a new Keeper which opens up Schmeichel for a move. I'm be kinda surprised if we are interested as his footwork isn't great.

Schmeichel and Butland would be massive downgrades from what I've seen. People need to remember Begovic. Looked good for Stoke yet was very underwhelming for us, even as a second keeper. Top-level sides need top-level keepers. It makes a massive difference.

 

It's a complicated situation. I'd be tempted to keep Courtois but it may be more trouble than it's worth. Maybe we can afford to lose out on his paltry fee, but I just don't like the idea of him running down his contract while Hazard is still at the club. In this case, I think the best thing might be to separate them, because we need commitment, and I don't think we'll get that from Courtois. For the sake of the dynamic, and also for the sake of his fee, the club may well decide to get rid. Unfortunately we can't create a bidding war for him because he'll only move to Madrid. He basically holds al the aces, and he'll gain financially as a consequence as we lose out. I just think it creates a bit of a bad vibe. I can see the pros and cons of both sides, as there's no obvious contender to take over.

 

I suspect the club haven't really planned for this, which is deeply troubling, but not altogether surprising. This was always going to be the likeliest scenario this summer and I suspect the club haven't really identified a replacement, despite the fact they've had at least a year to do so.

 

I'm not against Cech as a stop-gap, because I think he'll raise his level and I think it would create some good vibes in the changing room. A lot of players fell below their standards under Wenger. In his first year at Arsenal, Cech was much better than he had been for us for ages. I think the same affect could take hold if he came back. As for the others, Navas has top level experience and has won 3 CLs on the bounce, so he can't be bad. There's also enormous pressure playing for Real Madrid, so we know he can cope. He's still a downgrade though. Donnarumma is the only other one that looks interesting, though by all accounts he's coming off the back of a poor year at Milan and there's no guarantees he's going to live up to all the hype.

 

There are obviously one or two that I've never heard of, such as this Kepa bloke. I just hope the club know of all the best young keepers around. With Cech, and with Courtois, we spotted them when they were very young. Cech was signed when he was 21 and Courtois when he was just 19. Both made their debuts for us at 22 and established themselves as our number 1.

 

With Cech, you get a guy that loves the club, and that would make a welcome change between the sticks. I like the idea more than most of you. Yes it's a downgrade but there are pros to his return and it would give us a year to identify the best successor to Courtois, because no-one is really standing out at the moment.

 

It's worth remembering Cech and Courtois have both attracted a lot of criticism on these boards over the years for their performances. This should put things in perspective. No keeper is perfect but if you think they were bad just wait till we sign Kasper Schmeichel. Seriously. Some of you guys need a reality check.

 

Lastly, we made a mistake loaning Courtois to Atletico, and it's not a mistake we should make again. He preferred Spain to England and Madrid to London. Atletico is a massive club and he basically enjoyed playing for them more than he did for us, IMO. Had we sent him to a German industrial town say, I dare say he might have been happier when he eventually joined us. Therefore the moral is, don't loan them out to glamorous sides in sunny climes, not if you want them to want to come back.

For me, we have a great scouting network. We should be scouring across Europe to find the next up and coming keeper. Man City plucked Ederson out of relative obscurity and Real Madrid were looking at that young GK Kepa to replace Navas. I do believe with good scouting, a talented young keeper can be found in the next year or two. If we can find a competent stop gap, should be no reason why we couldn't save the money and bring in a talented keeper when the time is right. 

We should be able to get Oblak, he has so far refused to sign a contract that removes his £85m release clause and it's not like we have cash flow problems to pay it all up front (we would still amortize it for FFP).

Failing that I'd keep Courtois for another season with a fat temporary contract + release clause, and whether he signs or not see if Pickford's continued his astronomical trajectory in 2019.

23 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

The Pope for me, plus a bid for the last great hope of Italian goalkeepers (Simon Scuffet) as third choice. This lad was the last big thing before Donnaruma, and has been plying his trade down in Serie B. Didn't work out too bad when we signed Carlo Cudicini!

This pope??

Re sign JT, he did good in goal once vs Reading when Petr got that awful injury, wont matter that his legs are gone if hes playing in goal

To be fair as a club we have great track record of signing good goalkeepers so i wouldn't put it past this club to find someone from somewhere if we have to. But i'd keep Courtois for another season, seems pointless selling him for £30M, Real get a complete bargain and we buy someone like Butland for £30M who isn't nowhere near as good.

2 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

Lastly, we made a mistake loaning Courtois to Atletico?

Lots of good points in here. You may be right on the destination, but for me it was the Duration that was really the mistake. Talk about letting a kid get settled in a town, club, and environment. 3 years isn't a loan, that's a transfer. He's Top 100 all time in appearances for Atletico, and Top 25 All-Time in Appearances from a Non-Spain Player. Unless you're Diego Costa, you'd probably learn to love a place in 3 years....

Jokes aside, he was there during what many of us would consider University years where we grow a deep allegiance to our various Universities.

I don't see Atletico as being as big a problem as 3 years at Atletico.

FWIW, I voted for Donnarumma. It seems as if the values would be similar, so it would be a swap for the most part. Young, budding world class talent who needs a change of scenery. 

Leicester just signed Liverpool’s Danny Ward for £12.5m, no small fee.

Could it be that he’s going to be Schmeichel’s replacement and he’s on his way to us paving the way for Courtois’ departure? 

I would absolutely love for Oblak to come to Chelsea but I can't see us being able to pry him away from Atletico unless we offer an unreasonably high offer.

Oblak's release clause is £80m apparently.

 

What if we offer them Courtois + £50m say?

 

Could Atletico refuse that? They're practically the same age and comparable in terms of quality.

 

I know Courtois wants Real Madrid where he'll earn much more, but if Chelsea and Atletico strike a deal, we put him in an uncomfortable position, where he has to turn down Atletico. That should throw the cat among the pigeons.

 

Some will ask why Oblak would want to join us and all I'll say is lots of money.

 

Some will say it's an insane deal from our point of view but the fact is we're going to lose Courtois for little or no money and if we want a top notch replacement we're going to have to spend big whoever we sign.

 

From our point of view, this one would appear to make a lot of sense, particularly as Oblak is better than all the other names mooted.

 

I say we test Atletico's resolve.

Better yet threaten to meet his release clause and if they don't want Thibo plus cash bite the bullet and accept 80m isn't much for a decade of having a top keeper

I feel like the GK position could end up being our new LB issue where we lose a truly world class player and keep spending £20m every summer in the hope of getting a good bargain instead of just splashing the big bucks on a truly world class replacement. 

I would only be up for signing Schmichael if he was cheap - which he won’t be. We’re probably looking £30m minimum which I feel is too much for an average keeper.

My vote would probably go to Cech as a stop gap to allow us time to find a proper replacement.