5 hours ago, Mod said:

After watching him last weekend, we should put a bid into Chelmsford for Cech!

Only let down by his dodgy defenders for the goal so maybe with Cucu still in the squad…

7 hours ago, Argo said:

Why does this word always get sprung about? I don't "hate" him, i just think he's not good enough for a team aiming to eventually wrestle the league back, especially from a league winning freak like Pep.

Regarding what to do now, unless we can somehow wrestle Maignan out of Milan in the next few weeks roll with Sanchez and a short term option (Navas should be an easy enough deal) then access next summer. Sanchez could surprise us, Navas could do a Silva but failing that we'll have a years worth of specific due dillengence done on our target ready to pounce, you never know maybe someone will have an Alisson 17/18 esque breakout season.

Well said. I don't hate any players, not personally.  We are talking about our armchair assessments of ultra fit ultra skilled athletes. Me not rating Kepa doesn't mean I hate him. Far far from it. He is a Chelsea player first and foremost. I think there is better out there and I fully expect Robert Sanchez to overtake him anyway. That's not hate, it's just an articulation of my personal preference, which means sweet fa after all.

I'm speechless 

If anything shows the dearth of quality keepers at the moment it's Madrid and Munich fighting over Kepa.

I know this isn't a forum wide opinion and will come under scrutiny but kepa is vastly underrated and only mocked for his price tag. 

Is ederson better than kepa? 

 

 

There is no point loaning him to bayern or realmadrid unless the loan fee is at least 10 million. 

They won't buy him once courtoiis  and nauer return

13 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

There is no point loaning him to bayern or realmadrid unless the loan fee is at least 10 million. 

They won't buy him once courtoiis  and nauer return

I would say it's not even worth it for £10m because next summer he'll only have 1 year left on his contract and his value will plummet. £10m loan fee with £40m obligation to buy.

 

Even at that stage we'd need to find a replacement. How much would it cost to buy that Argentinian lunatic from Villa?

First match tomorrow and today our number 1 goalkeeper is leaving for Real Madrid. David DeGea is available but I wouldn't go there. He is such a liability building from the back. Kepa is not perfect in that but DDG is horrible.

31 minutes ago, Conte said:

I know this isn't a forum wide opinion and will come under scrutiny but kepa is vastly underrated and only mocked for his price tag. 

Is ederson better than kepa? 

 

 

Yea a lot better most keepers are 

Seems like Bayern München and Real Madrid agree with me that he is a great goalkeeper but I guess those are just 2 small clubs and the eye test is superior 

2 minutes ago, Is good blues said:

Yea a lot better most keepers are 

He isn’t. Ederson had dreadful stats last season. Conceded around 10 goals more than he should have while kepa kept out 5 or 6 that should have been goals 

On 10/08/2023 at 19:20, Whats_The_Mata? said:

Yet neither are willing to pay a single euro for Kepa and have only considered him as a cheap last minute loan option after both losing their number 1's too injury.

 

Loans aren't free 🤣

20 minutes ago, azpi28 said:

Seems like Bayern München and Real Madrid agree with me that he is a great goalkeeper but I guess those are just 2 small clubs and the eye test is superior 

More like he's the best one happy to go to either knowing he's a mere placeholder and on the bench once Courtois/Neuer are back to fitness.

And ofcourse both clubs are happy to have him under that proviso, as flawed as he is as number 1 he's without doubt one of the best to have as a backup.

Well on the one hand I'm grateful as he's been a liability for about four years now. On the other hand we've somehow conspired to sign somebody even worse as his replacement.

Think it might be time for Hilario to get his gloves back on!

Sanchez will surprise a lot of people this year.

6 minutes ago, I am a CPA said:

Sanchez will surprise a lot of people this year.

He'd surprise me if he's anywhere near as bad as Kepa so I bloody hope not!

15 minutes ago, Argo said:

More like he's the best one happy to go to either knowing he's a mere placeholder and on the bench once Courtois/Neuer are back to fitness.

And ofcourse both clubs are happy to have him under that proviso, as flawed as he is as number 1 he's without doubt one of the best to have as a backup.

Not targeting you but I think a lot of people have been unfair to Kepa. He came in highly rated, had just displaced De Gea in the national team set up and had match winning  performances for us, as well as match losing ones. 

However we forget in the last near two decades we were lucky and spoilt with two of the best goalies in world football and i'd say almost prematurely let Cech go to keep Thibaut. Always a tough act to follow and even those two had near the meanest defences through several periods in world football protecting them, which he never had. 

He was Real Madrid's choice before Courtois and they didn't go for him because of the difficulty at completing a deal with Bilboa for any Spanish side. Thibaut lowered his value by striking and at short notice we had to get the next big keeper on the scene available so fair play to the club. Thibaut went to Real Madrid for half what Kepa cost us because of how he engineered the move. 

Kepa didn't do badly but there was a narrative which he never helped with his refusal to come off  in cup game which as anything with Chelsea gets the media into overdrive. I was incensed at the time but over time and seeing the humble person he is, I realise it was probably more a competitive spirit as well as the misunderstanding which they gave as reason at the time which probably caused it. Some of the Chelsea fans have had a grudge and I think maybe unconsciously been hung up about things since then that every little mistake is picked apart with no slack given him even when he does well. 

The stats support that he is not the best keeper in the league but better than some we look at in higher regard. He has his bad sides like all keepers but I'd say he has more good than bad. 

To come out from near banished to the bench for two seasons though you are or were a number one and take the L with dignity, to help the club how he did last season, on and off the pitch, because turns out he is vocal and a big personality in the dressing room who learned from Azpi since he came in the club, was a really positive thing in my opinion. 

I guess what I'm saying is that he's not the best but we severely under appreciate and under value him. I like him and think with better protection he will easily be a good addition to any top side. He will win you games with match saves as he has done and will lose you some too but not at the frequency with a bad defence. 

Sure his weak wrists have cost us rebounds from shots in the first place most goalkeepers his height won't get anywhere near but surely I'm not the only one that remembers games Cech lost for us because of his hesitation to come out aerially especially after his injury or being slow to react to 2nd or 3rd ball contentions following set pieces in the area or Thibaut lost us because of his poor clearances when trying to play out the back or his atrocious near post reactions. 

59 minutes ago, Argo said:

he's without doubt one of the best to have as a backup.

Are you feeling ok @Argo? 

Who was it saying we should have kept Mendy because he was better playing out the back?

https://x.com/eltonthefirst/status/1690332655785590785?s=46&t=IGn8vp6h7M1KeMBA4aOgnw

 

Happy days

https://x.com/cfcpys/status/1690340614578061315?s=46&t=IADWMMDWtMYMPFeimX1NoQ

Not so happy when Sanchez is getting dummied for fun 3 times a game!

I guess this all comes down to simply raising funds now, nothing more, which to me doesn’t sit right. Hoping all of this is getting ran by Poch first and he’s comfortable with it.

So now we are leaving ourselves short on keepers again? It just seems like we are selling him because it's the only chance we will get, but it's pointless if we don't have anybody to replace him. And no, Sanchez is not a replacement, he's not good enough. Even if Sanchez was the replacement, it would leave us short, who's going to be our 2nd choice? Bettinelli? he's not even Championship quality.

3 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

So now we are leaving ourselves short on keepers again? It just seems like we are selling him because it's the only chance we will get, but it's pointless if we don't have anybody to replace him. And no, Sanchez is not a replacement, he's not good enough. Even if Sanchez was the replacement, it would leave us short, who's going to be our 2nd choice? Bettinelli? he's not even Championship quality.

The transfer window is open until the end of the month, so we've got time to sign another keeper, on lower wages and amortize their fee across a 5 year period for a much lower cost.

 

Selling Kepa in this window makes perfect sense and is in line with the boards strategy of selling players with 2 years left on their contract.

Makes no sense from a Chelsea perspective. We are 1 day away from the seaosn starting, why let our 1st choice keeper go? Everyone will know we are desperate and bump up the prices for any GK we look at by about 500%

18 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

So now we are leaving ourselves short on keepers again? It just seems like we are selling him because it's the only chance we will get, but it's pointless if we don't have anybody to replace him. And no, Sanchez is not a replacement, he's not good enough. Even if Sanchez was the replacement, it would leave us short, who's going to be our 2nd choice? Bettinelli? he's not even Championship quality.

Why are you convinced Sanchez isn't good enough? He had a poor season with brighton but an exceptional one before. Sounds better than Kepa to me. 

It's not hard to buy a number 2. For a decent fee. 

Getting Kepa off our books is a massive saving. His wages and transfer fee are a big weight.