Quite remarkably, Kepa Arrizabalaga is still a Chelsea player as we kick off the 2024-25 season. He currently finds himself in transfer limbo, alongside the likes of Conor Gallagher, Trevor Chalobah and Armando Broja.
Whilst Chelsea continue to look for a potential suitor for the 29-year-old Spaniard, we assess what his potential options are, and how is it that the £72 million man now finds himself unwanted at Stamford Bridge but still collecting his reported £170,000 per week wages.
1. Will Madrid make another move?
Kepa spent the 2023-24 season on loan at the Bernabéu, making 19 appearances across all competitions, following a severe injury to Thibaut Courtois, and helped Real win La Liga and the Champions League.
However, Kepa was only ever signed as injury cover, and alongside the rise of Andrey Lunin, Madrid are rumoured to have no desire to re-sign Kepa, either on another loan or a permanent transfer.
2. The Italian Job to the rescue?
Fiorentina were a team heavily linked to rescue Kepa from his Chelsea nightmare. The Viola can offer him consistent European football, following their qualification for this year’s Europa Conference League, where they could very well meet Chelsea in the latter stages.
Disappointingly though, at least for Chelsea’s weekly wage bill totals, Fiorentina recently reached an agreement to sign free agent David de Gea who is poised to be their number one heading into the new season, making a move for Kepa very unlikely.
3. A stay at Stamford Bridge?
Currently, Chelsea are in the quite ridiculous position of having six first team goalkeepers listed for their first team going into the new season, and no true established number one.
Robert Sánchez appears to be Enzo Maresca’s first choice despite an underwhelming debut season whilst new signing Filip Jorgensen will be looking to make a name for himself following his £20.7 million move from Valencia in the summer. Djordje Petrovic is looking likely to be granted a loan move to continue his development, whilst Marcus Bettinelli is merely there to make up numbers.
With all these keepers on the book, and none having excelled during the previous season, there may be a chance, albeit a very small one, for Kepa to be reintegrated into the Chelsea first team should none of the current cohort make the spot their own.
Kepa’s relationship with the Chelsea fans has been a strayed one, ever since the infamous incident where he refused to be subbed at Wembley when Maurizio Sarri was in charge. However, he has had some stand out moments for the Blues, especially in penalty shootouts, and was a noble deputy to Édouard Mendy during the Blues’ Champions League win in 2021.
The likelihood however, is that Chelsea will still be looking to cash in on the Spaniard, but they may be forced to be reliant on bids from the Middle East, or a club desperate following an injury crisis, to be able to get any return on their sizable investment from 2018.
Header image: Vyacheslav Evdokimov, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons.
