Chelsea agree transfer fee for Cech replacement - report

Well that didn't take long.  Roughly 24 hours after rumors of Chelsea agreeing personal terms with Asmir Begovic but Stoke City rejecting our opening bid of £6m emerged — and roughly 25 hours after we finalized the Petr Cech sale to Arsenal — here come reports of Chelsea managing to work out a deal with Stoke already to the tune of £8m.

Mourinho's club has reached an agreement with Stoke City for Asmir Begovic for a transfer fee of £8 million while the player is expected to earn £4 million a season.

-source: gianlucadimarzio.com

Petr Cech's departure may have been like death by a thousand cuts, but at least our healing remedy appears to be very quick and very effective.  Asmir Begovic doesn't exactly scream backup* goalkeeper; he certainly has the quality to be one of the better starters in this league.  Landing him as our backup would be a fantastic deal, although his personal compensation seems to have gone up overnight from €5m/year (£65k/week) to £4m/year (£75/week).  Which, whatever.

So, come on down, Mr. Begovic in all your homegrown, soon to be trophy-winning glory.

* Neither does Diego Benaglio, our supposed first-choice signing according to Di Marzio, so we were/are definitely aiming high here.