Realistically, the goalkeeper spot has been a weakness for Chelsea since Thibaut Courtois’ move to Real Madrid in 2018. It has been almost eight years, but the Blues have not been able to find a replacement for the Belgian.
Kepa Arrizabalaga was signed for a world-record fee but failed to meet expectations. Edouard Mendy did well for a while, even being an integral part of their Champions League win, but his form dipped pretty quickly. Robert Sanchez has been hit-and-miss throughout his Chelsea career. He is excellent when at his best, but it feels like a mistake is always around the corner. And Filip Jorgensen is not the long-term solution either.
The club do have high hopes for Mike Penders, someone many view as the ‘next Courtois’. He is just 20 years old though and might not be ready to be a starter for Chelsea yet.
So, where does that leave the club when it comes to their goalkeeping spot. Will they go out and sign a goalkeeper this summer? Or will they stick with the options they have and hope for Penders to develop into a starter?
Chelsea fans won’t be happy with the club’s goalkeeper plans
During a Q&A session on Reddit, The Athletic’s Simon Johnson was asked about Chelsea’s plans for goalkeepers in the summer. The journalist replied:
Things change but I don’t think a new keeper is a priority right now. Chelsea will assess all three – Penders, Sanchez, Jorgensen – again in the summer.
The difficulty for them is they have high hopes for Penders long-term but he is still young. Do they run the risk of bringing him in too early and damage his confidence if he has to learn in the PL? It helps that Rosenior is in charge of course. He knows him well from Strasbourg obviously. If they sign another big name keeper it runs the risk of blocking his pathway/development. Chelsea did see Maignan as a good compromise last summer but knowing he could start talks over being a free agent in January, did not see AC Milan’s asking price of 25m as being good value. We shouldn’t forget that until the Arsenal Carabao Cup semi final, Sanchez was having a very good season.
I think rotating him and Jorgensen has been one of Rosenior’s biggest mistakes so far. Sanchez is not perfect by any means and I wrote within a few months of his debut that Chelsea won’t win a PL or CL with him. But the decision has just added to the uncertainty at the back in recent weeks and damaged his confidence at the same time. Jorgensen being injured now has forced him into sticking with Sanchez now.
So, it looks like Chelsea are not planning to make a move for a goalkeeper in the upcoming summer transfer window. That is something a large section of the support won’t agree with. A good team needs a reliable presence between the posts. Neither Sanchez nor Jorgensen is that. And if the Blues continuing to stick with the duo, their issues at the back might persist.
Sanchez, Jorgensen or Penders, who will be first-choice next season?
Penders is clearly the one that Chelsea have high hopes for. So, they might be worried that signing another big-name goalkeeper at this point might block his path into the starting XI.
That being said, it might be far too early to hand Penders the spot just yet. If they do and he struggles, it might hurt his confidence badly and derail his chances of being the club’s long-term number one.
At the same time, how long are Chelsea ready to wait for Penders? There is no guarantee that he will be a top goalkeeper in the Premier League. So, there is the risk that the club might end up wasting a couple of their seasons, just for someone who never meets his potential, as many of their wonderkid signings have failed to do.
