It’s finally happening – after years of speculation, Thibaut Courtois is moving to Madrid.
El Pais yesterday reported that a €40m deal is all but done, with only Chelsea’s need to find a replacement preventing it from being completed already.
Despite having had plenty of warning, Chelsea have let themselves be put in an awful position by this whole situation.
Firstly, they are getting at best €40m for a top class goalkeeper coming off a Golden Glove winning performance at the World Cup. That’s because they’ve allowed his contract to run down till there are just 12 months left.
Secondly, the delays in sorting this deal mean that we will likely be just a couple of weeks away from the start of the season by the time a replacement is in the building. That’s partly because the club took so long to install a manager, and partly because they didn’t force the Belgian to make a decision earlier.
Thirdly, they’ve put themselves in a position where there are no affordable top level stars out there. Alisson of Roma is moving to Liverpool, and according to that same article in El Pais, Kasper Schmeichel and Petr Cech are now top of Chelsea’s list.
When that’s the situation, you know something’s gone horribly wrong.
