Panic Kepa buy may just pay off for Blues

IT was only a year ago that Manchester City spent £33 million (RM165m) on Ederson, a goalkeeper with one international cap, to make him the most expensive goalkeeper ever.

As it turns out, with four of the five most costly goalkeepers in history moving since, City appear to have been ahead of the curve in picking up an elite shotstopper for a relative bargain.

At the conclusion of the Ederson deal, one that raised eyebrows initially, City officials said that by the end of the summer that price would look like a good one. A year on, it looks even better.

That is not necessarily to say that Chelsea are overpaying for Kepa, an £71 million (RM355m) goalkeeper who just like Ederson has a sole international cap to his name. But they are paying the top-of-the-market rate at a time when the market has spiralled out of control.

At 23, you can justify such an outlay on a player if you are sufficiently convinced he will be the long-term answer at the position, and in goal that is even more obvious.

David De Gea’s signing by Manchester United comes to mind, though that deal was clearly more thought out than Kepa’s surprise arrival in West London.

Had Chelsea been longterm suitors of Kepa who thought he could be their No. 1 for the next decade then they could have got him for a quarter of this price back in January. But they didn’t.

This is undeniably a panic move from the Blues but they have nonetheless secured a fine young goalkeeper who will repay them with performance after performance.

He is a brilliant reaction stopper, his long kicking is excellent and his shortpassing game is good enough for La Liga.

Bulk and dominance will come with experience and a specially-designed training programme.

Pepe Reina has been a mentor to the youngster and told Kepa that playing under Sarri, as Reina had done at Napoli, would be a great move for his career and that helped convince the 23 year-old that this was the right time for him to make a big move. – The Independent