As opposed to Lukaku, Werner etc, The difference with Kepa is he does actually perform well when he plays. Seems daft for us to loan him for us to pay 75% of his wages whilst we have to find another second keeper. 
 

That said, the club are probably thinking longer term that they need to get rid of him permanently and loaning him is a way to get him off the books. 

He has been pretty reliable recently.

Any way he dislodges Mendy who has deteriorated?

14 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

He has been pretty reliable recently.

Any way he dislodges Mendy who has deteriorated?

Kepa himself let in some soft goals when he filled in for Mendy and unlike the latter doesn't have the credit in the bank from previous times.

By all means find a keeper to push Edou, but Kepa ain't it.

54 minutes ago, Argo said:

Kepa himself let in some soft goals when he filled in for Mendy and unlike the latter doesn't have the credit in the bank from previous times.

By all means find a keeper to push Edou, but Kepa ain't it.

The problem is I don’t see any better keeper available that would want to compete or be a bench warmer. Also, despite being very critical with Kepa, I think that he did well when Mendy went to the African Cup, for a second keeper (rec3ntly we had Begovic or Caballero as second keepers and it did not work out well when they had to play regularly). It’s fine if he wants to go and there’s a team willing to pay the fee or paying the wages in a loan, but loaning to pay 75% of wages when we’d need to buy/pay a similar quality second keeper is just madness.

6 minutes ago, RMH said:

The problem is I don’t see any better keeper available that would want to compete or be a bench warmer. Also, despite being very critical with Kepa, I think that he did well when Mendy went to the African Cup, for a second keeper (rec3ntly we had Begovic or Caballero as second keepers and it did not work out well when they had to play regularly). It’s fine if he wants to go and there’s a team willing to pay the fee or paying the wages in a loan, but loaning to pay 75% of wages when we’d need to buy/pay a similar quality second keeper is just madness.

But I think the reason he got praise for that period is because he's seen and judged as a number two now. If he's made number 1 again then it won't be long until the reasons he was dropped in the first place fly back to the fore again. 

When he played in that AFCON period he let in that soft KDB shot then at Brighton was rooted to his line on the corner, even away to Spurs he f**ked up by charging out only for Spurs to be Spurs and one up him by drifting offside. Even if he made a few good saves aswell, ultimately at this level it means nothing if you let in soft goals alongside it.

I take your point about struggling to find a number 2 happy to be competitive, I wonder if any of the keepers from within could be that one ala Kelleher at Liverpool. 

“Chelsea will ask Napoli to pay a £1.25million loan fee but they still would have to pay 75 per cent of his salary, with the Spaniard currently earning £150,000-per-week at Stamford Bridge. “

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

“Chelsea will ask Napoli to pay a £1.25million loan fee but they still would have to pay 75 per cent of his salary, with the Spaniard currently earning £150,000-per-week at Stamford Bridge. “

What’s the point then?

Wonderkid goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina is closing in on a move to Chelsea. The 18-year-old is flying to London to complete the £12m deal completing negotiations that have been on since March.
 

I wonder if this is why Kepa is going on loan?

75% of his salary is a terrible deal for us. Might as well just keep him for now.

23 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Wonderkid goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina is closing in on a move to Chelsea. The 18-year-old is flying to London to complete the £12m deal completing negotiations that have been on since March.

This sounds interesting. I guess a tad young still, but we need to find a great goalkeeper from somewhere without spending 100 million.

Mendy has been decent and pretty solid for us, but he’s not top drawer. Mistakes are a little too common from him for my liking.

50 minutes ago, Zeta said:

75% of his salary is a terrible deal for us. Might as well just keep him for now.

Pretty much sums us up at the moment. 

The only way I can get my head around us paying 75% is we've got to be insisting that he plays most of the season in a hope that he finds enough form to find permanent buyers, either that or he is better out on loan than sulking around the place.

2 hours ago, Adamrb said:

What’s the point then?

Either spend 8 million on him being a bench warmer or spend 4.75m on him playing for Napoli where the chance of him being sold next summer and being off our books entirely is increased. 

why doesn’t he take a pay cut if he wants to be a starter at Napoli? 75% is just ludicrous

3 minutes ago, mojo said:

why doesn’t he take a pay cut if he wants to be a starter at Napoli? 75% is just ludicrous

Because he's always been an absolutely crap goal keeper that basically won the lottery being offered a far higher salary than he ever had the talent to warrant for 7 years.

Why would he give that up? He knows once his contract ends here no club on the planet would offer him more than 20/30K a week.  This is his only chance to make the big money.

The real question is why Marina offered some bang average Spanish Keeper that no one else wanted 170K a week for 7 years.

Edited July 31, 20223 yr by HazardousChoice

1 hour ago, HazardousChoice said:

Because he's always been an absolutely crap goal keeper that basically won the lottery being offered a far higher salary than he ever had the talent to warrant for 7 years.

Why would he give that up? He knows once his contract ends here no club on the planet would offer him more than 20/30K a week.  This is his only chance to make the big money.

The real question is why Marina offered some bang average Spanish Keeper that no one else wanted 170K a week for 7 years.

Nobody wanted? Real Madrid had reached an agreement with him and were ready to pay the rescission clause to Athletic on the winter transfer market before Zidane arrived. Zidane stopped the move and he injured his foot, so Florentino stopped the purchase and they got Courtois off us instead. Kepa signed a new deal with Athletic with the rescission clause that we paid. So yes, there was an interest in him by other teams. 

6 minutes ago, RMH said:

Nobody wanted? Real Madrid had reached an agreement with him and were ready to pay the rescission clause to Athletic on the winter transfer market before Zidane arrived. Zidane stopped the move and he injured his foot, so Florentino stopped the purchase and they got Courtois off us instead. Kepa signed a new deal with Athletic with the rescission clause that we paid. So yes, there was an interest in him by other teams. 

So as I said nobody wanted him.

Real considered paying his 18m release clause 6 months prior to us signing for him as a home grown number 2 (not a starter) and Zidane made the decision Kepa wasn't good enough to be a number 2.

If anyone actually wanted Kepa they'd have triggered his £18m release clause in January.  No one did.

6 months later we're paying 72m for him and giving him a ludicrous contract. By far the most baffling and worst signing in football history.

Edited July 31, 20223 yr by HazardousChoice

I would do the 75% with a loan fee , just to get him away from the bridge ,we would be slightly better off .

Give the No 2 spot to the new young lad and then blood  him gradually with cup games etc.✌️

On 31/07/2022 at 15:02, HazardousChoice said:

6 months later we're paying 72m for him and giving him a ludicrous contract. By far the most baffling and worst signing in football history.

Somewhat amusingly, his latest valuation on the Transfermarkt web site is now only £ 9 million 🙂 

That takes some doing with 3 years still left on his contract ... 

He is absolutely unsellable at his current level of salary. The loan is the only option to try and create some additional value and demand for him, but no way his next club will be paying him such a stupid amount of money as we are ... 

I swear there must have been some kind of money laundering going on with this one ... 

Why a 7 year contract? We NEVER offer that to anyone. Just boggles the mind. Could Marina not have left it at 5 like others?

2 hours ago, hawkster said:

I would do the 75% with a loan fee , just to get him away from the bridge ,we would be slightly better off .

Give the No 2 spot to the new young lad and then blood  him gradually with cup games etc.✌️

You mean the American lad? 

If he goes to Napoli the new American goalie whose only 18 is not available until January. Leaving us no decent back up to Mendy. If Mendy gets crocked no proper cover, where’s the Fin sense in that. Aside from hoping Napoli purchase Kepa who would have to agree a massive pay cut - seems unlikely so what’s the point of this loan ? 

7 hours ago, General said:

If he goes to Napoli the new American goalie whose only 18 is not available until January. Leaving us no decent back up to Mendy. If Mendy gets crocked no proper cover, where’s the Fin sense in that. Aside from hoping Napoli purchase Kepa who would have to agree a massive pay cut - seems unlikely so what’s the point of this loan ? 

The point of the loan is to get Kepa playing regularly, in the hope that from his perspective he makes the Spain World Cup squad, and from ours that he has a miraculous run of form that creates some interest in someone actually signing him permanently.

I assume the Mendy back up plan is Bettinelli and Sharman-Lowe as 2nd/3rd until January.

Emergency plan  :

 

8 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

The point of the loan is to get Kepa playing regularly, in the hope that from his perspective he makes the Spain World Cup squad, and from ours that he has a miraculous run of form that creates some interest in someone actually signing him permanently.

I assume the Mendy back up plan is Bettinelli and Sharman-Lowe as 2nd/3rd until January.

Emergency plan  :

 

They would both be disasters. TSL wasn't even number 1 at Burton Albion and Bettenelli just doesn't cut it at this level.

With Mendy in such dire form and costing us goals/chances, the time has come for the worlds most expensive keeper to rise like a phoenix from the flames and step up, first nailing down the number 1 spot, then moving on to world domination. 

Come on little Kepa - you can do it.

In the words of Mariah Carey - there can be miracles, when you believe!