Cech Vs Courtois, Past and Present or Present and Future

In 2004 a young talented goalkeeper arrived at Chelsea with a 11 million price tag and a reputation as one of Europe’s best up and coming custodians

He wasn’t expected to walk into the team and start, Chelsea already had a good keeper Carlo Cudicini was popular with the fans and and a fine shot stopper but was starting to wind down and was consistently injured, Cech was the future and was expected to push Carlo for the No.1 spot, however a preseason injury to Cudicini meant Cech started the 1st game and never looked back. Cudicini was later sold to Tottenham and Chelsea until signing Mark Schwarzer this year went without a reliable backup.

Fast forward to the summer of 2011 and we signed Thibaut Courtois 19 year old goalkeeper from Genk for £7.9m.

He was quickly loaned out as many new young signings are when they arrive at Chelsea. The loan served a number of purposes. It helped him gain first team experience and more importantly experience in a top European league. He went to Atletico Madrid initially for 1 season.

Since then Courtios has played 91 times for Atlético and has won the Europa League, Copa del Rey and a European super cup along the way, as well as being voted LFP best goalkeeper for the 2012-13 season in which he had the lowest goals conceded per game ratio in the league and is now recognized as one of Europe’s finest keepers

Which leaves Jose Mourinho with a problem ( not a bad problem i think you will agree ), does he stick with Cech, a legend of the club who at 31 still has a few good years left in the tank, does he sell Cech who would still command a reasonable transfer fee, or does he try and play them both at the club at the same time, a kind of time share with both keepers playing half the games.

The latter option seems the most likely and the least attractive to both players

Courtois stated towards the end of last year that he wasn’t prepared to play second fiddle to Cech, as he said: “I want to play, I will not be sitting on the bench.

“At Atletico I feel great and being here allows me to play in the Champions League.”

And now his father has chimed in saying

“Chelsea have a good goalkeeper in Cech, so cohabitation with both is not possible,”

“Alternating between the two is possible on paper but this is not what we want. This is not a situation we want.

“For now, we expect to discuss with Chelsea but it is impossible for Courtois to join a club to be their number two, and the conclusion is the same for Petr Cech.”