Chelsea are reportedly furious with former goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, after the Belgian criticised the club’s sporting director Marina Granovskaia for reneging on an agreement to sell him last summer.
The Blues reportedly deny the claims of the keeper, and claim that they had never agreed to sell him. Courtois left Stamford Bridge to join Real Madrid last summer. His departure would have surely left a bitter state in the mouths of many Blues fans. He was one of the best keepers in the World at the time of his departure which was not on good terms. Courtois originally arrived at the West London club from Belgian outfit Genk in 2011 as a highly-rated young player.
The Blues sent him on a three-year loan spell with Spanish outfit Atletico Madrid and he flourished there, developing into a World class player and helping Diego Simeone’s side to win one Europa League title, one La Liga title and finish off as runners up in the Champions League during the 2013-14 season. It was following the 2013-14 campaign that the Blues decided to re-integrate Courtois into their first-team and he was immediately made first-choice keeper, replacing club legend Petr Cech.
During his time with the Blues, Courtois won two Premier League titles, one FA Cup and one League Cup. In spite of this they struggled for consistency, had backroom instability and struggled to launch sustained challenges for the Champions League. The chances are high that this was what may have influenced the keeper into making the unpopular decision to leave England in order to return to Spain.
His decision would likely have also not been received well by fans of his former club Atletico Madrid who are city rivals to Real.
As reported by The Sun, Courtois told Belgian outlet HLN: “That Marina is hard at negotiation is normal. The people in football who are talking about contracts, salaries, transfers, etc that get players and dispose of them – they have the most difficult job.
“In March, Marina and I had a meeting in which I indicated that I wanted to leave. Living in London and the schedule of the Premier League made it impossible for me to regularly see my children, who lived in Madrid.
“After the World Cup, a departure was suddenly not that obvious anymore. The possible replacements were too expensive. That was not the agreement.”
