Date: 1st June 2013 at 8:00pm
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thibaut-courtois-denkt-aan-derde-jaar-atletico-id3861006-1000x800-nChelsea will demand a £1 million fee from Atletico Madrid for the La Liga side to loan him from the West London club for a further season.

The Belgian goalkeeper has gone from strength to strength since signing for the Blues from Genk in 2011 but has spent the entirety of that period out on loan.

Courtois helped his side win the Copa del Rey against their bitter rivals Real Madrid, managed by Jose Mourinho, in Los Blancos‘ own backyard and revealed that he wanted to stay with Atletico Madrid via his Twitter account after the game when he gave his thanks to the club’s fans.

He also picked up the Zamora trophy for having the best goals/games ratio of any goalkeeper in Spain’s top flight. He earned himself a Europa League winners medal last season and won the European Super Cup against Chelsea at the beginning of this season, so he’s become accustomed to success as well as gaining valuable experience.

Next year he’ll likely be back at the Vicente Calderon and Atletico Madrid will compete in the UEFA Champions League and there isn’t going to be any better experience for him than that as he’s already playing regularly in one of the top leagues in the world and is starting to pick up international caps.

Petr Cech is still going strong at Chelsea and will be the number one keeper for the foreseeable future but with Henrique Hilario and Ross Turnbull being released, the Blues will be in the market for a second-choice stopper.

Diego Lopez has already ruled himself out of a move from the Santiago Bernabeu to follow Mourinho to West London. I don’t think there’s much point in spending money on a guy that’s probably going to play less than 10 games over the season (if that) so Mark Schwarzer wouldn’t be a bad option on a free.

As for Courtois, he is without doubt better off staying at Atletico where he’s happy and he seems secure in the knowledge that Chelsea see him as his long term successor. He’s playing for one of the better teams in the league and regularly, so they’ll be no point bringing him back to sit on the bench as he’s never a number two and a Premier League loan is a non-starter as he should be at a top club and why would we help out a rival? He wouldn’t learn anything by taking a step down to join a mediocre domestic outfit.

Source: The Metro

 

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