Kepa Arrizabalaga

[Sleeping Dave]

50 minutes ago, Lump Of Celery said:

Arent they £150k? Not that outrageous these days

£190k. Pretty outrageous for an average goalkeeper that costs you several (10+) points per season. 

[Thiago97]

10 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

£190k. Pretty outrageous for an average goalkeeper that costs you several (10+) points per season. 

Works out the best part of £8.5m in saved revenue, whilst pocketing £1m on top for the loan fee.

Hopefully he does well and Madrid may want to turn it into a permanent move and we can recoup another £15 million from the sale. I can see Kepa wanting to stay, even if it means he ends up back up to Courtois when he returns from injury.

A good deal for both parties, plus it probably don't hurt having good relationships with Real Madrid for the future.

[Lump Of Celery]

His wages are reported almost everywhere as £7.8m per year (£150k per week) when he signed on. 

4 hours ago, Thiago97 said:

Works out the best part of £8.5m in saved revenue, whilst pocketing £1m on top for the loan fee.

Except we have to pay millions for a replacement, and pay their wages. So likely to costs us more, or make a negligible saving, I am also assuming the replacement keeper will be of a lower quality too. With Kepa's amortisation we are paying £9m for him to go out on loan, plus whatever for the replacement. Ridiculous 

 

[Thiago97]

1 hour ago, Lump Of Celery said:

His wages are reported almost everywhere as £7.8m per year (£150k per week) when he signed on. 

Except we have to pay millions for a replacement, and pay their wages. So likely to costs us more, or make a negligible saving, I am also assuming the replacement keeper will be of a lower quality too. With Kepa's amortisation we are paying £9m for him to go out on loan, plus whatever for the replacement. Ridiculous 

 

This would be the case anyway though. He has proved not up to the task, and that's why it has taken a scenario like a bad injury late in the window to move him one, as well as every other club knows he is not value at this salary.

Don't get me wrong, the timing from our perspective is maybe not ideal. However, it's clear he would be on his way at the end of this contract, so either way we need to spend money to replace him over the next 2-3 windows. At least we are getting something back here to offset things.

[Sleeping Dave]

2 hours ago, Lump Of Celery said:

His wages are reported almost everywhere as £7.8m per year (£150k per week) when he signed on. 

Except we have to pay millions for a replacement, and pay their wages. So likely to costs us more, or make a negligible saving, I am also assuming the replacement keeper will be of a lower quality too. With Kepa's amortisation we are paying £9m for him to go out on loan, plus whatever for the replacement. Ridiculous 

 

I think we will have Sanchez as our number one and sign someone cheap and experienced as the number 2. 

[Mark Kelly]

Just now, Sleeping Dave said:

I think we will have Sanchez as our number one and sign someone cheap and experienced as the number 2. 

I'm desperately hoping he improves on his showing against Liverpool because apart from one really excellent claim of a cross he was bloody awful , for the first goal he dives after the balls in the net , for the offside one he made a truly embarrassing attempt to narrow the angle ending up , of all places flat on his face as Salah whisked the ball past him.  I also noticed when travelling along his goal line his footspeed was ludicrously slow , he's a big guy but he's out of shape.

I'm hoping Ben Roberts with whom he has a great rapport can knock him back into shape otherwise we'll be looking at they shoot they score territory once again.

[Rob B]

9 hours ago, Lump Of Celery said:

His wages are reported almost everywhere as £7.8m per year (£150k per week) when he signed on. 

Except we have to pay millions for a replacement, and pay their wages. So likely to costs us more, or make a negligible saving, I am also assuming the replacement keeper will be of a lower quality too. With Kepa's amortisation we are paying £9m for him to go out on loan, plus whatever for the replacement. Ridiculous 

 

Disagree….

1) Kepa costs us £18m - £20m per year (!!) with fee amortisation and wages.  To put this into perspective he costs us almost 5% of our entire annual turnover each year. 

If we can’t replace him (reportedly with a no.2 rather than a no.1) for significantly less than that, then god only knows why.  A £20m keeper on £100k per week could be half that figure?!?  

2) Why do you assume he will be lower quality?  Kepa is frankly, nowhere near good enough for a club of our aspirations.  We’ve just spent £175m on two midfielders, one is 19 and the other is 21 and both only have broadly one PL season of experience.  Why does everyone want to then compromise on the GK position?   We should be setting our sights on the top 5 - 10 players in the world like we are doing elsewhere.

3)  We’re not paying for him to go on loan.  Real Madrid are paying his wages and a £1m loan fee, so the £18m or so he costs us each year is reduced to £9m for this year of account.   As I see it, we either go and get a cheap number 2 who costs peanuts and put our faith in Sanchez, or we try and upgrade and we have £9m to spend to break even this year. 

And then next year, he will have a year left on his deal,  we will sell him for somewhere between £10m - £20m to a big club who like a bargain (Athletico, Bayern, AC Milan) and make a P&L profit on him.

This topic has really divided the fan base with views of either “ludicrous decision if no obligation to buy” or “no brainer thank god he’s gone”  and seemingly no middle ground. I’m obviously in the latter camp, but what I would also say is that the will of the player was clearly to leave.  In his first statement with Real he’s talking about hoping he can stay beyond this year!!!  So the club had no choice even if they wanted to keep him as Poch has said consistently he only wants players who want to be here! 

[Michael Tucker]

18 minutes ago, Rob B said:

       And then next year, he will have a year left on his deal,  we will sell him for somewhere between £10m - £20m to a big club who like a bargain (Athletico, Bayern, AC Milan) and make a P&L profit on him.

Just a quick question: If Kepa is so bad, why would 'big' clubs such as Atletico, Bayern and AC Milan want him? 

[Rob B]

I don’t think he’s “bad” I just don’t think he’s anywhere near good enough to help win you the premier league ie Alison, Ederson, Cech, Courtois, Van der Sar, Schmeichel etc.

I suspect those other clubs will be interested for the same reason they signed players like Pulisic, Azpi and Loftus-Cheek -  they’re not expensive, and will do well in a weaker league.   Kepa in particular will only be 29 too. 

[kev61]

On 15/08/2023 at 22:23, Michael Tucker said:

Just a quick question: If Kepa is so bad, why would 'big' clubs such as Atletico, Bayern and AC Milan want him? 

If it wasn't so serious it would be funny.I think we need Chara's take on this.

Sanchez was rooted to the spot on west ham's first goal.

Not only did he not anticipate where the ball would land,but he never even anticipated where the obvious header would go.

Bring back Kepa all is forgiven.

[kev61]

On 15/08/2023 at 23:24, Rob B said:

I don’t think he’s “bad” I just don’t think he’s anywhere near good enough to help win you the premier league ie Alison, Ederson, Cech, Courtois, Van der Sar, Schmeichel etc.

I suspect those other clubs will be interested for the same reason they signed players like Pulisic, Azpi and Loftus-Cheek -  they’re not expensive, and will do well in a weaker league.   Kepa in particular will only be 29 too. 

That's not the point.Is Sanchez better than Kepa?.

It's too early to tell,but I will put my neck on a line and say no.

Again Sanchez has no pedigree so who thought it was a good idea to sign him?

Are we putting players names in a hat and drawing out a name that we go after?

[chara]

42 minutes ago, kev61 said:

If it wasn't so serious it would be funny.I think we need Chara's take on this.

Sanchez was rooted to the spot on west ham's first goal.

Not only did he not anticipate where the ball would land,but he never even anticipated where the obvious header would go.

Bring back Kepa all is forgiven.

Hmm..Thanks for your confidence kev!........Kepa..started off with the burden of such a ridiculous transfer fee which instantly clouded opinions.... I was never so harsh as some and did admire how he pulled himself out of a slump..not easy... He wasn't in my top Chelsea group (trio) but was .for me. an average EPL keeper...good in parts!

Felt underwhelmed when Sanchez arrived but joined a long list of "back up" bench warmers in my mind. To see him as #1 is more than a concern,,early days but not confident that he will be anything but low on the average scale.

I tend not to judge on "mistakes" but on presence ...given a clear dangerous threat on goal the top keepers give hope that they will prevail;;;not so Sanches..in my very humble opinion..help any?

[kev61]

19 minutes ago, chara said:

Hmm..Thanks for your confidence kev!........Kepa..started off with the burden of such a ridiculous transfer fee which instantly clouded opinions.... I was never so harsh as some and did admire how he pulled himself out of a slump..not easy... He wasn't in my top Chelsea group (trio) but was .for me. an average EPL keeper...good in parts!

Felt underwhelmed when Sanchez arrived but joined a long list of "back up" bench warmers in my mind. To see him as #1 is more than a concern,,early days but not confident that he will be anything but low on the average scale.

I tend not to judge on "mistakes" but on presence ...given a clear dangerous threat on goal the top keepers give hope that they will prevail;;;not so Sanches..in my very humble opinion..help any?

So what you are saying is Sanchez looks crap?

[kev61]

On 15/08/2023 at 22:23, Michael Tucker said:

Just a quick question: If Kepa is so bad, why would 'big' clubs such as Atletico, Bayern and AC Milan want him? 

Because it's cobblers.The question is ‐ is Sanchez better than Kepa?.

The answer is no imo.Money doesn't come into it otherwise we would  be top of the league.

[Michael Tucker]

36 minutes ago, kev61 said:

The question is ‐ is Sanchez better than Kepa?.

The answer is no imo.

Then why all the fuss?

[chiswickblue]

The other crazy point is we loaned Kepa when Bettinelli was injured - we're one warm-up injury away from Lucas Bergström playing a PL match tomorrow.

[chara]

9 hours ago, kev61 said:

So what you are saying is Sanchez looks crap?

Might be one way of summing up😁

[Rob B]

17 hours ago, kev61 said:

That's not the point.Is Sanchez better than Kepa?.

It's too early to tell,but I will put my neck on a line and say no.

Again Sanchez has no pedigree so who thought it was a good idea to sign him?

Are we putting players names in a hat and drawing out a name that we go after?

I didn’t mention Sanchez?   My gut feel is that he’s probably no better either - or maybe better at some things but worse at others.   But that wasn’t the point of my post. 

If we’re talking about Sanchez, I think his future at Chelsea lies as a number 2 goalie.  Albeit a fairly costly one at £25m. 

[CarefreeMuratcan]

So...is Kepa going to be part of the squad next season?

[chara]

4 hours ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

So...is Kepa going to be part of the squad next season?

Good question....will he want to come back to the UK after a season back home?....and to a squad he will barely know! ?

[ROTG]

2 hours ago, chara said:

Good question....will he want to come back to the UK after a season back home?....and to a squad he will barely know! ?

On his salary absolutely. 
then in January he can choose his own destination. 

[chiswickblue]

19 hours ago, ROTG said:

On his salary absolutely. 
then in January he can choose his own destination. 

I don't think he'll even get on the bench ahead of Sánchez. At least it would mean a younger keeper could play regularly for the development squad rather than having to tag along with the first team.

[jasonb]

Last time out Sanchez looked very nervy in that situation Kepa must be the No.2 assuming he comes back.