Ironic somewhat that Madrid have effectively made this happen by loaning us Kovaic. Apparently we were after a midfielder, Madrid offered us Kovaic which therefore saves us money and enable us to put £70m on a keeper. 

This is great news. We need someone to keep Rob Green sharp. [emoji6]

4 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Kepa.

K-E-P-A.

(Keh-pah)

Quite simple really.

Easy when he comes for crosses, "kepa's"

“Chelsea had budgeted for trying to sign a midfielder and a new goalkeeper in the remaining days of the transfer window, so the chance to get Kovacic without paying a fee appears to have freed cash to spend on Kepa”.  - Matt Law

 

Presumably he'll take Thibo's #13, unless Willy wants to drop the #1. He can't have the other traditional Spanish goalie shirt number, of course, that being #25...

..

Edited August 7, 20187 yr by mojo

Extraordinary if true. We've been caught on the hop massively and now pay a record fee we were unwilling to pay for Alisson a month ago.

Good player so it may well be worth it.

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Paul Merson won't want to report on another Chelsea game again 

I'd say I'd love to hear Carragher announce one of our games but I know the amusement would wear off after the 5th minute and I'd spend the next 85 minutes regretting my wish.

4 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

Extraordinary if true. We've been caught on the hop massively and now pay a record fee we were unwilling to pay for Alisson a month ago.

I can only think that Courtois hadn’t confirmed he was definitely looking to leave or maybe we hoped to convince him to stay. 

Only when he was due back and didn’t turn up we’re we forced to secure a replacement. Our fault for giving players with only 12 months left on their contract 3 weeks holiday during such a short transfer window. 

5 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I can only think that Courtois hadn’t confirmed he was definitely looking to leave or maybe we hoped to convince him to stay. 

Only when he was due back and didn’t turn up we’re we forced to secure a replacement. Our fault for giving players with only 12 months left on their contract 3 weeks holiday during such a short transfer window. 

If there was a hint of concern we could have made this deal in January for 17m.

This is a last minute response to something that has been brewing for  year at the cost of paying 50m pounds extra. 

But again better than what we thought we might get so we'll see.

1 minute ago, Spiller86 said:

If there was a hint of concern we could have made this deal in January for 17m.

This is a last minute response to something that has been brewing for  year at the cost of paying 50m pounds extra. 

But again better than what we thought we might get so we'll see.

Or maybe we just rate Kepa more than Alisson, so we are willing to pay the amount needed for Kepa and weren’t for Alisson.  It could be panic but I’ll choose to be optimistic.

11 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

If there was a hint of concern we could have made this deal in January for 17m.

This is a last minute response to something that has been brewing for  year at the cost of paying 50m pounds extra. 

But again better than what we thought we might get so we'll see.

I suspect that back in January the club were still holding out some hope that Courtois would sign a new deal. But I think most of on here have seen this coming for a while. In fact I feel as though Courtois would have been happier staying at Athletico than returning to Chelsea after his loan. Perhaps if he had we wouldn't have lost De Bruyne either (allegedly).

34 minutes ago, Barry Bridges said:

I'd say I'd love to hear Carragher announce one of our games but I know the amusement would wear off after the 5th minute and I'd spend the next 85 minutes regretting my wish.

They would need a waterproof microphone, the amount of spitting would be terrifying. 

22 minutes ago, Spiller86 said:

If there was a hint of concern we could have made this deal in January for 17m.

This is a last minute response to something that has been brewing for  year at the cost of paying 50m pounds extra. 

But again better than what we thought we might get so we'll see.

How would we have gotten him for 17m exactly? He was ready to move to Madrid, but then signed a new contract so I'm not sure why he would have moved to us behind Courtois, who at the time was ready to sign a new contract apparently. 

Could be all a big smoke screen to get stoke to lower the butland price....

You can absolutely say that we should have had a contingency in place, but musing on Kepa's old release clause is taking 'benefit of hindsight' a bit too far.

Can't believe the club's official twitter account is tweeting out Sarri's verbatim press conference responses to questions about Kepa. Granted, he's batting the questions away and not confirming anything of course, but it's a bit odd.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 20187 yr by Charles Ryder

Class goalkeeper with tons of potential. This is a yuuggeee signing. Plus, it looks like we are getting Kovacic as well!

Edited August 7, 20187 yr by PraetorianGuard

 

Quote

 

Meet Kepa Arrizabalaga: Chelsea's new goalie, bird lover, and the one that got away from Zinedine Zidane 

Marca, the notoriously pro-Real Madrid Spanish newspaper, did not hold back in its assessment of the club’s failure to sign Kepa Arrizabalaga. “Kepa,” read one headline, “an error that will haunt Zidane.”

 

The “error” in question was Zinedine Zidane’s decision to veto a move for the Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper in January. The transfer, for a cost of around £18?million, was so near to being completed that the 23-year-old had even passed a medical, but still the Real Madrid manager said no. “Kepa is very talented,” Zidane, who would leave the Bernabeu in May, later admitted. “But I did not want a goalkeeper in the middle of the season. I don’t regret not signing him.”

Seven months down the line, Kepa’s transfer value has quadrupled. Having been deemed unworthy of £18?million by Madrid, Chelsea will this week make him the most expensive goalkeeper in history.

The price hike is a result of a new contract Kepa signed at Athletic in January, but it also a reflection of an ability that has made him the most promising goalkeeper in Spanish football.

Born in Ondarroa, a Basque seaside town, Kepa was an obvious talent from an early age. He did, though, balance football with a second childhood passion: birds. Alongside his father, he would hunt for goldfinches and train them to sing. He was good at it, too: Kepa’s birds, named Oker, Rocky and Raikkonen, twice won competitions, in 2008 and 2010.

Kepa first joined the Athletic academy when he was nine years old. His progression through the ranks was swift, and he even impressed as an outfield player, scoring two goals in one match at under-14 level when injuries had temporarily decimated the side.

As he developed, Kepa’s reflexes and speed began to interest the national youth teams, and he played for Spain at youth levels before making his senior debut  last year.

Since making his first appearance for Athletic in 2016,  he has made more than 50 appearances for the club, and was included in Spain’s World Cup squad in Russia this summer. That was proof of his development, but this move to a new country and a new culture will surely provide his greatest test yet.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/08/07/meetkepa-arrizabalaga-chelseas-new-goalie-bird-lover-one-got/

 

 

 

As a fellow bird-lover, this is great news.

Edited August 8, 20187 yr by Charles Ryder

Welcome to Chelsea Kepa, thank you San Memes people for letting him go to Chelsea as well, one of the most impressive teams in Europe is Bilbao no doubts about it they just play with home grown players and are a tough team to beat every year.

8 hours ago, dkw said:

How would we have gotten him for 17m exactly? He was ready to move to Madrid, but then signed a new contract so I'm not sure why he would have moved to us behind Courtois, who at the time was ready to sign a new contract apparently. 

Exactly. Courtois allegedly told back then that him and Hazard had talked and that the two of them were planning on extending their contracts together.  A lot have happened since, however, and Courtois is clearly moving on. Being completely honest I doubt that Hazard will be extending now that Courtois has left. I think this will be his last season sadly. 

And yeah - about Kepa. The fact that he had a release clause back in january definately doesn't mean that he would have moved back then. He did turn Madrid down after all. Rumours had it that he wanted to extend his contract so when he eventually was sold, Athletic would get more money for him. Sort of a gentleman's agreement, which obviously has worked out fine.

29 minutes ago, Hanzen said:

Exactly. Courtois allegedly told back then that him and Hazard had talked and that the two of them were planning on extending their contracts together.  A lot have happened since, however, and Courtois is clearly moving on. Being completely honest I doubt that Hazard will be extending now that Courtois has left. I think this will be his last season sadly. 

And yeah - about Kepa. The fact that he had a release clause back in january definately doesn't mean that he would have moved back then. He did turn Madrid down after all. Rumours had it that he wanted to extend his contract so when he eventually was sold, Athletic would get more money for him. Sort of a gentleman's agreement, which obviously has worked out fine.

Zidane said that he vetoed the move for Kepa in January as he didn't want to bring in a new keeper mid season...there was also talk of him having a metatarsal injury then too...their loss our gain I suppose...

Edited August 8, 20187 yr by doctorblue

This is really exciting but I can't help feeling a dreadful hypocrite.

When Liverpool splashed out that sum of money on their keeper recently I thought it was obscene and yet now we're going to spend even more on a keeper, I will have to be honest, up until a few days ago I had never heard of.

The crazy football world we now live in. 

We essentially got a new keeper for 35m as did Real Madrid. It is not end of the world. I also think Kepa will be on lower wages than Thibaut. 

1 minute ago, evissy said:

We essentially got a new keeper for 35m as did Real Madrid. It is not end of the world. I also think Kepa will be on lower wages than Thibaut. 

When you add the Spanish taxes, the total amount of transfer would be close to £100m. Which is absolutely mental. Considering this player was available for £30m (including taxes) just 8 months back.

Our board had lost all sense and is just doing the headless chicken routine. Everyone on internet could see that Courtois is running down his contract. The board should have signed Lafont or Kepa last summer and benched / sold Courtois.

 

Edited August 8, 20187 yr by Orpington_Blue