Chelsea: Jamal Blackman starting over when Chelsea could be starting him

Jamal Blackman is three games into his seventh loan. If his sixth loan did not end abruptly with a devastating injury, he could be the backup starter Chelsea need right now.

Most Chelsea fans of the modern generation – of which I am a part, despite my occasional sauropod inclinations – don’t know that the Blues once shared a vicious rivalry with Leeds United, back when such rivalries manifested themselves in violence (er, physicality) by both players and fans alike. Understandably, the 16-year separation between the two clubs in league play – they have only met once since Leeds’ relegation from the Premier League, a 5-1 Chelsea win in the League Cup – has let the animosity evaporate as both fans train their sights on rivals they actually play, let alone match evenly with.

If anyone wants to rekindle this rivalry for the next generation, or if you just need one more reason to dislike Marcelo Bielsa, a good place to start is Jamal Blackman.

If you think Kepa Arrizabalaga has gone soft in goal from lack of competition, think of Leeds United. If you think Arrizabalaga was an even worse use of a record-setting fee than Andriy Shevchenko, clench your fists as you mutter the words “Leeds United.” If you’re not looking forward to the prospect of Chelsea spending over £120 million on goalkeepers within a few years, Leeds bloody United. If injuries break your heart and boil your blood, Leeds. . United.

Chelsea sent Jamal Blackman on loan to Leeds United in July 2018. For the first three months of the season, Blackman was Bailey Peacock-Farrell’s backup in the Championship and started in the two Carabao Cup ties. Presumably in an effort to get him some playing time as Leeds were no longer in the Carabao Cup, Marcelo Bielsa sent Blackman to play with Leeds’ U23 on November 16. Late in the game, a collision with a Birmingham City player fractured Blackman’s tibia.

On the one hand, it was good of Bielsa to recognize that Blackman needed playing time to stay match sharp and engaged with the club. There were two more months until Blackman’s likely next start in the FA Cup.

On the other hand, usually the only time first-team players take the pitch with the U23’s is when they are returning from injury. First-team games are there for first-team players, even goalkeepers. Peacock-Farrell was doing well that season, but he was not undroppable nor un-rotate-able. In the month before the injury, Leeds United faced four teams in 20th place or lower. Any of those would have been a safe and useful opportunity for the backup goalkeeper to notch a league appearance.

Blackman, age 24 at the time, was three years older than Peacock-Farrell. That is a perfect set-up for intrasquad competition and using two goalkeepers as a battery rather than having a strict No 1. and backup relationship. The third-string goalkeeper was 19-year old Will Huffer, who sat the bench behind Blackman in the Carabao Cup. All three needed experience that season: for their respective developments, for the future of Leeds’ goalkeeper corps and for readiness in the case of injury to any of them.

Sending Blackman to play with the U23’s was along the lines of what we wrote recently about FA Cup replays: every game carries a certain degree of risk, but when an unnecessary or avoidable game is where the risk becomes reality, it’s even harder to stomach the injury. Blackman didn’t need to be playing in that game because he could and should have had one game at the proper level with the first-team.

Questionable player management put Blackman on that pitch. And even though that injury could have happened anywhere, it happened to Blackman somewhere he didn’t belong.

Jamal Blackman played his first game since that injury last month, as Chelsea loaned him to another League Two side, Bristol Rovers. Had he not been injured in November 2018, he would have been in a prime position to be Kepa Arrizabalaga’s backup. Frank Lampard would have either kept him around from the beginning of the season, or recalled him in January as things devolved with Arrizabalaga.

It would have been the first time since Asmir Begovic’s departure that Chelsea’s backup keeper was under their mid-30s, meaning he could provide meaningful competition and coverage for the No. 1.

Arrizabalaga can be confident and complacent that a 38-year old loose cannon is not really going to become Chelsea’s starting goalkeeper, especially not with this defence. But a 25-year old who joined Chelsea at age 12, was an English youth international, served his time in the loan army in England, Vitesse and Sweden, and is five inches taller? Fight or flight for the Spaniard.

But instead, thanks to Leeds United, Blackman is starting over in League Two and the Blues’ goalkeeper situation will produce many sleepless nights for the next six months.

And did things at least turn out well for Leeds’ goalkeepers after Blackman’s injury? They signed Kiko Casillas on a free transfer that January. Casillas ended up displacing Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who transferred to Burnley last summer for barely £3 million. He has yet to play for the Clarets, as he is stuck behind Nick Pope – who is now linked with Chelsea (and, to be fair, has been coveted by my colleague Barrett Rouen for some time) – and hat-wearing legend Joe Hart. Blackman’s Carabao Cup backup, Will Huffer, made one appearance that season and has not appeared since.

Guess things worked out for nobody. Remember all this on the off-chance Leeds United ever appears on Chelsea’s Premier League fixture list.