Chelsea should be glad they dodged the Gianluigi Donnarumma bullet

There have been numerous themes of the Clearlake Capital-era at Chelsea. Signing players from Brighton, an enormous churn of managers and wildly inconsistent performances. Another, is the goalkeeper position being a major issue.

For years, many questioned why the club, and numerous head coaches, persisted with the inconsistent Robert Sánchez. Well, after a chaotic display at Craven Cottage on the opening weekend of the season, Xabi Alonso and the recruitment team ruthlessly cast aside the Spaniard, who was shipped out to Como on loan, bringing in Emi Martínez.

So far, the Argentine has not proven to be much of an upgrade, making a few errors, before suffering a broken jaw at Hill Dickinson Stadium, thereby sitting out the last four matches. Well, his deputy Mike Penders did not fare much better, scoring a calamitous own goal against Tottenham, albeit the Belgium was substantially better a week later against Manchester United.

Nevertheless, the Blues are certainly still searching for the elite-level goalkeeper they will require to truly challenge for the Premier League title. Only with Thibaut Courtois or Petr Čech in between the sticks have the club been champions since 1955.

Well, while at the time many believed Gianluigi Donnarumma could be the man they need, it turns out Chelsea dodged a bullet. In the summer of 2025, soon after the FIFA Club World Cup Final in New Jersey, Luis Enrique made it clear that the Italian had no future at Paris Saint-Germain, signing Lucas Chevalier, with Matvey Safonov the number one these days.

Thus, Chelsea very much could have signed Donnarumma had they wanted to, but instead he joined Manchester City for £26 million, after Pep Guardiola quickly deemed James Trafford not up to his standard. Well, so far this season, the 27 year old has made numerous errors, most recently passing the ball straight to Michael Olise to score during France's visit to San Siro on Thursday.

At club level too, Donnarumma has been a liability for Enzo Maresca's side, culpable for numerous goals Manchester City have conceded, most notably beaten at his near post against RB Leipzig during the most-recent round of Champions League fixtures.

So, while Donnarumma is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeeper on the planet, that zeitgeist is slowly starting to change. Thus, it certainly feels as though Chelsea made the right decision by not signing the Italian, otherwise they'd be in the exact same position as they always have been. Once he returns from injury, Martínez will be aiming to prove he was the right choice.

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