Chelsea: Marcin Bulka exit opens spot for Jamal Blackman or Jamie Cumming

Chelsea have two of their three goalkeepers in place for next season. Jamal Blackman and Jamie Cumming should have the chance to compete with each other and Willy Caballero for their place in the lineup.

Marcin Bulka looked set to be Chelsea’s version of Gianluigi Donnarumma. Unfortunately for Bulka, Chelsea are not the sort of club to put any teenager straight into the starting XI, no matter how precociously talented he is.

Any thoughts Bulka’s had of being the Premier League’s Donnarumma lasted only for those weeks between Thibaut Courtois’ departure and Kepa Arrizabalaga’s record signing. Any follow-on thoughts of making some level of impact, or at least a first-team debut, vanished when the club signed Rob Green on a free transfer. With Arrizabalaga’s £73 million transfer fee ensuring the top spot and two goalkeepers twice his age (or thereabouts) making up the depth, Bulka rightly concluded his moment at Chelsea had passed.

Incredible place, Chelsea FC. Nineteen years old and rated one of the best prospects in the world, and your moment has passed.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Bulka did not renew his contract with Chelsea last season, so he will join Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer. With Gianluigi Buffon not returning to the French hegemons / European bottlers, Bulka will challenge Alphonse Areola for the starting spot.

This leaves Chelsea with a few options for their goalkeeper depth. After his heroics in the Europa League, Rob Green announced his retirement from football. Willy Caballero’s contract lasts through the 2019/20 season. The club are also not renewing Eduardo’s contract after he spent last season on loan at Vitesse (remember when Vitesse was the destination for Chelsea’s best loanees? Good times.).

The Blues have one other first-team goalkeeper under contract, Jamal Blackman. Blackman suffered a broken tibia last November while on loan at Leeds. He has a wealth of first-team experience on loan in League Two, the Championship and Sweden’s top-tier league. Pending his return from injury, he would be – as he should have been the last two seasons – an ideal candidate to take the Asmir Begovic career path.

Had Chelsea not maintained two twilight goalkeepers on their bench for the last two seasons, Blackman would have gained experience in the Premier League, deep runs in the domestic cups and potentially his first appearances in European competition.

Over those two seasons deputizing Courtois and Arrizabalaga, he would have had enough experience for him and the club to negotiate for a worthwhile permanent transfer. He would also have been a more reassuring back-up – assuming he wasn’t a complete disaster in those cup appearances – than the always nerve-wracking Caballero and the signed-with-no-intention-of-using-him Green. And even if he was, the Blues could have made him the third string goalkeeper behind Caballero.

Simply, Chelsea took the least advisable, shortest-term approach to goalkeeper management by having one in his early 20s and two in their mid-30s.

The other option for next season is Jamie Cumming. Cumming, like Bulka, is 19 years old and was on the first-team bench three times last season. He spent the season with Chelsea’s U23 team, playing in the Premier League 2, UEFA Youth League and EFL Trophy.

Cumming is an ideal candidate for a place on the goalkeepers’ bench, if the coaching staff can see their way to giving him starts over Willy Caballero. Like all young players, Cumming simply needs to play. He would be better off staying with the U23’s or going on loan than spending the season with the first team but never coming off the bench. But if he plays in the early rounds of the domestic cups and any dead rubbers the Blues may have in the Champions League, he will gain immensely from the experience, along with learning from Kepa Arrizabalaga and Willy Caballero in training. And if Arrizabalaga suffers a long-term injury, the team still have the more reliable Caballero as a long-term fill-in.

Chelsea have two goalkeepers confirmed, and two who could compete for the remaining spot. Given Blackman’s injury and the option of shuffling Cumming to the U23’s, the club don’t even need to decide right away.

Cumming could start the season as the third goalkeeper. Once Blackman returns from injury, he and Cumming could compete for whatever they and the club think is the better prize: a second-half loan or staying with the Blues and competing with Willy Caballero to be Arrizabalaga’s back-up.

Either Jamie Cumming or Jamal Blackman – maybe both – could be among the beneficiaries of Chelsea’s transfer ban.

With the Blues unable to sign another goalkeeper pushing 40 (what’s Victor Valdes up to these days?), both Cumming and Blackman should have a fair opportunity to make their way into the full squad, the matchday squad and – as appropriate – the starting XI.