Apparently this is a thing after all. Or at least we're trying to make it a thing.
John Ruddy, Chelsea backup goalkeeper - off the tongue, it rolls not. But we do need a backup goalkeeper and a backup goalkeeper is what John Ruddy could be. So how much are we willing to spend on the second coming of Ross Turnbull?
Chelsea are expected to step-up their chase for a back-up goalkeeper with an increased offer for Norwich City's John Ruddy.
A £5million bid has already been turned down, and that is expected to be increased to £6m.
-Source: Fulham Chronicle
Friend of the blog Dan Levene is the journalist standing behind this story, so I'm inclined to believe he's not just making things up Turkish newspaper-style. Still, it's a bit of an odd one.
John Ruddy is a good goalkeeper and he could probably do the job of Ross Turnbull in his sleep. In fact, he's been good enough to reach the fringes of Roy Hodgson's England team, while being voted Norwich City's player of the year two seasons ago. He's been slowed by a thigh injury this past season, but I find it hard to believe that Chris Hughton would willingly go forward with Mark Bunn instead.
From the Chelsea perspective, I'm not a fan of the moneys involved. Turnbull came on a free transfer, which may have actually been too much in retrospective but seemed like a good deal at the time. Certainly much better than any amount of millions spent a backup who will strictly be just a backup. We have a few youngsters in the system who could do the bench-warming just fine and Plan B in case of a catastrophic Petr Cech injury has to start and end with Thibaut Courtois anyway.
At least Ruddy is English and thus would not take up a foreign player slot a la Henrique Hilario. So he's got that going for him.