1 minute ago, Mod said:

Not completely agreeing with that! Kepa is streets ahead of Silky Sanchez, and why yet again, do we have to sell a player to Arsenal.... and for just 5 mil. Madness!

Fee that low is ridiculous. I also find it strange that there has been no follow up from Bournemouth on a permanent transfer if £5m is all we want for him. I thought he had a decent season down on the south coast !

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Fee that low is ridiculous. I also find it strange that there has been no follow up from Bournemouth on a permanent transfer if £5m is all we want for him. I thought he had a decent season down on the south coast !

Yes, bizarre. Even more considering that Iraola and him played the same Spanish club.

What’s his book value? Do we make any PSR money on this deal?

Truth be told, I never liked him ever since the 2019 league cup fiasco. Wish him and his family the best, but I stand by saying he is genuinely the worst first choice keeper I’ve ever seen at this club. (Yes even Sanchez).

I think he’ll get minutes at Arsenal. Arteta comes across as a daft menace trying to be too hipster and I can envision him constantly rotating the GKs.

3 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Fee that low is ridiculous. I also find it strange that there has been no follow up from Bournemouth on a permanent transfer if £5m is all we want for him. I thought he had a decent season down on the south coast !

Not really given the circumstances.

Last summer Kepa had just one year left on his deal. Club tried to find a permanent move for him but could not do so as Kepa was then on a high salary.

So a loan was the only option otherwise Kepa would have sat out his deal and left for free. Bournemouth agreed to pay a potion of his wages and a loan fee and, unlike Real, he was going there to be number 1.

Now both the club and Kepa wanted something for this loan to happen. Firstly the club wanted the one year extention that cut a percentage off his wages this past season and a large cut this coming season. I believe Kepa want from 200k to 175k (those sort of ranges) last season and dropped to 75k this season.

Kepa Agreed but also wanted a very low minimum fee clause open to any club so he could have his choice this sum.er, and he has picked Arsenal.

So rather than lose him for nothing we saved on wages last year and are getting 5mill.

6 hours ago, Mod said:

Not completely agreeing with that! Kepa is streets ahead of Silky Sanchez, and why yet again, do we have to sell a player to Arsenal.... and for just 5 mil. Madness!

He was in his last year.. would have gone for free but we agreed an extension probably with a release clause.. we got a loan fee - lower wages and now 5mil more.

Kepa ain’t that great with his feet at the ball .. we don’t know how many he would have cost us.. Sanchez at least a better shot stopper.. having said that neither should be at the club.

12 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Fee that low is ridiculous. I also find it strange that there has been no follow up from Bournemouth on a permanent transfer if £5m is all we want for him. I thought he had a decent season down on the south coast !

It was either 5m or nothing.

I'm pretty sure him and his family would prefer to stay in London but yes it is a bit odd he is happy to sit on the bench when he's good enough to start for most prem clubs. Must be good some wages on offer.

8 hours ago, JM7 said:

What’s his book value? Do we make any PSR money on this deal?

So my rough maths is it's about 5m book value. So it's just a net out

He was 70m on 7 year contract and we extended when he had a year left. 10m / 2

Which explains the 5m fee.

I assume Bournemouth wouldn't pay the wages.

I assume arsenal have told him he will start in the domestic cups. Which for me means arsenal will not win a trophy again next year.

On 08/08/2018 at 17:04, Zeta said:

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2018/8/8/kepa-arrives-at-chelsea

Welcome.

Arsenal are after Kepa  and are activating the £5m release clause

Glad to have him off the books at last, should have been sold after his cup final antics in his first season.

Very surprised at Kepa. He has had a whole season playing regular football and now he is about to join Arsenal where he will be back up to Raya... yes the typical saying that players will fight for their place, but highly unlikely he replaces Raya unless injured. The odd games in midweek they probably will rotate and he will start cup games but still confused on Kepa's side why he wants to go there and not hold out for a team that offers him guaranteed first team action. Yes he is staying in London, but I think he may well be seeking an exit this time next year, when he realises he is warming the bench. Don't understand why he wants to be another Ramsdale.

14 hours ago, STATS said:

Very surprised at Kepa. He has had a whole season playing regular football and now he is about to join Arsenal where he will be back up to Raya... yes the typical saying that players will fight for their place, but highly unlikely he replaces Raya unless injured. The odd games in midweek they probably will rotate and he will start cup games but still confused on Kepa's side why he wants to go there and not hold out for a team that offers him guaranteed first team action. Yes he is staying in London, but I think he may well be seeking an exit this time next year, when he realises he is warming the bench. Don't understand why he wants to be another Ramsdale.

See I don't find this strange at all

I would 100% rather be a cup keeper for a team challenging for the title, than a first team keeper at Bournemouth, especially at his age.

You'd earn more money, have better facilities, challenging for trophies, and still potentially play 15-20 games a season

46 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

See I don't find this strange at all

I would 100% rather be a cup keeper for a team challenging for the title, than a first team keeper at Bournemouth, especially at his age.

You'd earn more money, have better facilities, challenging for trophies, and still potentially play 15-20 games a season

He is taking a pay cut to go Arsenal. At his age, yes you are challenging for a title, but do you really feel like a title winner when you play f**k all. Facilities are better, but then playing for a team who will not compete for title but will make a challenge for top half and Europe is more appealing than riding the bench. Most GK who do this always end up wanting a move. Look at Begovic when he joined us. Ended up leaving after not dislodging Cech and moved to Bournemouth I believe. Dean Henderson left United to go Palace and look what he has done. Won a cup, got into England contention. I would only think a player would be happy playing back up if no other team wants you. I am sure Kepa would have suitors, especially seeing as he is willing to take a pay cut. Also would of had much more chance of playing for Spain playing regularly, and considering the World Cup is next year, yeah very surprised.

27 minutes ago, gurru991 said:

For only 5M I would have thought Bournemouth

On 06/06/2025 at 09:45, The Boehly Babes said:

Yeah cracking bit of business for Arsenal this, crazy really that the 2nd best GK we have on the books is only valued at 5M

On 06/06/2025 at 16:31, gurru991 said:

For only 5M I would have thought Bournemouth would keep him.

Had the club not agreed to the inserting the £5 million fee into his revised contract then he would have cost CFC a incredible of money in 24/25

When it comes to viewing the deal you shouldn’t just look at the fee you have to go back to day one all the way back in 2018

We all knew pretty soon that he was a very poor keeper he did some of the spectacular things very well but when it came to a lot of basic things he was terrible. He was easily beaten at times . We all knew he was poor yet to listen to some now you would think he was generational talent.

Let’s not forget he was on close to £150k a week not just that but his fee impacted amortisation by over £10 million Pa. In reality his fee alone, when the club’s amortisation was£200 million , was 5% of the total.

The last year of his original deal was 24/25. The changes limiting amortisation to 5 years in reality meant that at the end of 24/25 he had no book value so would have been a free agent. Getting him to reduce his pay for 24/25 was a result, significantly reducing the wage saving circa £4-5million add in the £3 million fee that AFC Bournemouth paid that helped the bottom line by a total of £7-8 million .

To make the deal work he would need to be moved on in 25/26 but even paying him a reduced £75 k ( I think it’s more than that but lets accept that as being correct)he need to be moved on and that would never have happened if say the buy out was £20 million or the like.

The current owners have created issues of course when it comes to transfers but like Lukaku the money paid out in respect of Kepa has been colossal and wasn’t of their doing . So even the small fee is at least a return indeed far better than him leaving on a free.

I have a good mate who is a Bournemouth ST holder they would have taken Kepa for £5 million but his wage demands were said to be massive.

The realty is Kepa isn’t going to shift Raya so he will be a second choice keeper probably on a 3 year deal on wages that are almost certainly going to be around £4 million a year far more than just about every clubs back up keeper for me changes the narrative that with how we now for 25 /26 were able to shift £10 million amortisation and £7-10 million wages is a win win for us

I swear if I have to read "amortisation" one more time.

I used to enjoy when football was played on the pitch and not in the accounts departments.

1 hour ago, STATS said:

He is taking a pay cut to go Arsenal. At his age, yes you are challenging for a title, but do you really feel like a title winner when you play f**k all. Facilities are better, but then playing for a team who will not compete for title but will make a challenge for top half and Europe is more appealing than riding the bench. Most GK who do this always end up wanting a move. Look at Begovic when he joined us. Ended up leaving after not dislodging Cech and moved to Bournemouth I believe. Dean Henderson left United to go Palace and look what he has done. Won a cup, got into England contention. I would only think a player would be happy playing back up if no other team wants you. I am sure Kepa would have suitors, especially seeing as he is willing to take a pay cut. Also would of had much more chance of playing for Spain playing regularly, and considering the World Cup is next year, yeah very surprised.

I would wager going to arsenal is probably the most lucrative option over the next 3 years. So I wouldn't describe what he's doing as taking a pay cut.

Everyone's different, but I get a sense kepa wants to be at a big team.

Edited June 9, 20251 yr by bisright1

3 hours ago, Zeta said:

I swear if I have to read "amortisation" one more time.

The problem is that without factoring in things like amortisation, impairment, PSR& FFP it’s incredibly difficult to gain perspective about why the cub and more specifically the ownership group are taking some of the decisions they do.

When RA shipped up he didn’t have the constraints that PL owners have nor did the majority of supporters even know what amortisation was.

2 hours ago, bisright1 said:

I would wager going to arsenal is probably the most lucrative option over the next 3 years. So I wouldn't describe what he's doing as taking a pay cut.

Everyone's different, but I get a sense kepa wants to be at a big team.

I’m actually think it’s more to do with his belief he will be challenging Raya for the first choice keeper berth

1 hour ago, terraloon said:

I’m actually think it’s more to do with his belief he will be challenging Raya for the first choice keeper berth

I'm with you. Not short on self-belief, the lad.

Some clearing out of the goalkeepers department going on: Lucas Bergstrom, Eddie Beach and Luke Campbell are leaving the club.

With Kepa apparently leaving as well, surely we can sign at least 3 new unknown/untested goalies not old enough to drive, surely?

17 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Some clearing out of the goalkeepers department going on: Lucas Bergstrom, Eddie Beach and Luke Campbell are leaving the club.

With Kepa apparently leaving as well, surely we can sign at least 3 new unknown/untested goalies not old enough to drive, surely?

Honestly Val, I don't know how we'll cope now that we only have Sanchez, Jorgensen, Bettinelli, Kepa, Petrovic, Sharman-Lowe, Merrick, Penders, Curd, Slonina, Sands and Austin left ...

And some people said we'd never sell Kepa.

At least we sold him for something than lose him for nothing

And Bettinelli's apparently getting poached by City... how will we cope?

8 hours ago, terraloon said:

The problem is that without factoring in things like amortisation, impairment, PSR& FFP it’s incredibly difficult to gain perspective about why the cub and more specifically the ownership group are taking some of the decisions they do.

When RA shipped up he didn’t have the constraints that PL owners have nor did the majority of supporters even know what amortisation was.

To be fair Granovskaia and Emenalo were particularly involved and skilled at skirting PSR and FFP when it was reduced. Players like Baba Rahman, Lucas Piazon and even Bakayoko turned FFP profits through loan fees. We caught on to exploiting the system fairly early on but were prone to torpedoing these efforts with dumb signings