There have been many discussions on Chelsea’s goalkeeper issue this season with several solutions bandied about. One is that they bring on loan keeper Djordje Petrovic back to Stamford Bridge after the young Serbian’s impressive season so far at Strasbourg.
Another has been to spend on bringing Liverpool’s backup keeper Caoimhín Kelleher over from the Reds for somewhere between £20-40 million as he is looking for more regular minutes. One option that has been discussed less often is the return of Kepa Arrizabalaga from his loan odyssey to reclaim his place as Chelsea’s number one.
Despite not playing for the club since the end of the 2022-23 season, Arrizabalaga is still under contract at Chelsea and they could decide to try and bring him back to Stamford Bridge.
After an up and down season at Real Madrid in place of the injured Thibaut Courtois, Arrizabalaga has found his footing at Bournemouth where he has helped the Cherries challenge for European football next season. He may have also found his home as the Spanish keeper is reportedly interested in staying at Bournemouth for the long term.
According to Mick Brown, a football scout and insider, Kepa wants to stay there permanently as he “happy” at the club. Brown said of the situation:
"From what I hear, he doesn’t want to go back to Chelsea, he’s happy at Bournemouth. He’s been able to get away from all the pressure he was under playing for Chelsea and just focus on his game and that’s been clear to see in his performances."
"The two clubs will have to come to some sort of agreement if he wants to stay at Bournemouth and Bournemouth want to keep him. But it will be up to Chelsea at the end of the day because he’s still their player."
It makes sense that Kepa wants to stay at Bournemouth considering he is playing regular football for a club in the Premier League without the pressure of his massive £71.6 million price tag. He is also experiencing great success there as they sit in the top 10 of the Premier League and are in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.
Things were rocky for him at Chelsea despite winning a few trophies as he was overtaken by Edouard Mendy as the club’s number one and had high profile spats with manager Maurizio Sarri. He also had his place threatened by Willy Caballero who was near the end of his career at that point.
Kepa happened to be at Chelsea during a period of instability at the club with a transfer ban, the COVID pandemic, and a revolving door of managers all contributing to what must have felt like chaos. The club still managed to win the Champions League and Europa League during that time but Kepa was often in and out of the starting XI due to his struggles.
Because of the issues Kepa has had with the club and the fact that he feels comfortable at Bournemouth, we feel it’s unlikely that he returns to Stamford Bridge next season. It is better for all parties if he finally makes a permanent move elsewhere but as he is under contract until 2026 we expect some sort of compensation for him to do so.
This is still a business and if Chelsea are going to sell Kepa to a Premier League rival then perhaps a player swap or nominal fee will coming back in the other direction. Chelsea could use Kepa as part of a deal to sign Dean Huijsen or Antoine Semenyo who the club have been linked to in the past. Either way, we expect the Kepa Arrizabalaga story at Chelsea to finally come to an end.