Official: Chelsea sign free agent goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli

Our long national nightmare of no summer signings is at long last over. Praise be to the gracious and benevolent GET-IN-elli, Marcus Getinelli! I mean Bettinelli.

The 29-year-old goalkeeper joins on a two-year deal, adding some experience to the group behind Édouard Mendy and Kepa Arrizabalaga that was lost when Willy Caballero left the team at the end of the season. Bettinelli will be expected to compete especially with the latter for the backup position.

Born and raised in London, Bettinelli had been with Fulham just down the road for most of his professional career, where his father, Vic also works as an Academy goalkeeping coach. However, he didn’t get too many chances with the team in the Premier League, and that was the case last season, too, which he spent on loan at Middlesbrough in the Championship. Overall, Bettinelli has over 200 professional appearances to his name, but only 7 at the Premier League level.

He might not add too many to that number at Chelsea barring injury or a surprise transfer, but Bettinelli should certainly be a more than capable — and homegrown! — part of the team. He had been linked twice before with us (2015 as Čech’s replacement and 2017, as Begović’s replacement); now he’s here.

“It’s always been a special club. I know the area very well so it’s been a dream of mine to come over to this side and it’s finally happened. There were some talks a few years ago when I was a bit younger and for whatever reason that didn’t come about but I’m here now.

“I’m really excited to be involved and looking forward to trying to impress and help the team as much as I can.”

-Marcus Bettinelli; source: Chelsea FC

Welcome, Marcus! Let’s win some things!