Chelsea are looking to see out the last remaining week of the January transfer window without making too many waves or splashing any unreasonable amount of cash on overpriced purchases, but things could get a bit interesting at the goalkeeper position.
We heard earlier this week that Chelsea will supposedly allow Asmir Begovic to leave either in the summer or this winter, provided that we find an adequate replacement first. Chances are, we won’t find an actual Premier League-level goalkeeper, although we’ve been quite lucky in that sense for much of the past two decades, with the likes of Carlo Cudicini, Petr Cech, Mark Schwarzer, and Asmir Begovic serving as backups at one time or another.
Tim Krul could continue that tradition; the Dutch international, who’s currently on the comeback trail from ACL surgery is not playing for either Newcastle’s or his loan club Ajax’s first-team and could possibly be available even as early as this week. The other option who was mentioned earlier, 35-year-old Diego Lopez (on loan at Espanyol from AC Milan) would probably not be available until the summer.
Two more names were added as potential targets this morning, with the Telegraph reporting on a three-name shortlist (sans Tim Krul). In addition to Lopez, Matt Law names Galatasaray’s Fernando Muslera, 30, and Celtic’s Craig Gordon, 34. It’s unclear why either of those guys would give up being undisputed first-choice at the current teams to be a backup at Chelsea, so perhaps they’re just on notice a potential summer move. Craig Gordon had been linked previously with Chelsea, even.
Meanwhile, firmly third-choice goalkeeper Eduardo apparently wouldn’t mind a shot either, at least according to John Cross of the Mirror. Of course, Antonio Conte already nipped any such ambitions in the bud earlier this week.
And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve got a special nonsense report this morning of a Thibaut Courtois — Alvaro Morata swap deal between Real Madrid and Chelsea. Any time you hear “swap deal”, you can safely ignore whatever that story’s trying to sell you.
EXCLUSIVE: Antonio Conte to let Thibaut Courtois leave Chelsea in incredible swap deal https://t.co/cXgY5KJsM9 pic.twitter.com/GrKznEKup1
— The Sun Football ⚽ (@TheSunFootball) January 25, 2017
The bonus to all this bonus is that Chelsea would then supposedly look at Joe Hart to replace Courtois. BAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA.