Juventus playing Real Madrid in my city this summer but sadly out of town...Past 2 years I have caught ManU v. Barcelona and that was a fun game as starters played whole 1st half.
85, a question for you. Chelsea sells Courtois for $45MM and buys Kepa for $91MM. Courtois is worth at least double what Kepa is worth, imo. Could RM be giving Chelsea the difference under the table to make the deal happen?
My belief is that Courtois' transfer was tied to Chelsea finding a suitable replacement. After Allison was sold at an inflated price (and I think Chelsea and RM already agreed to the lower prce) I think Chelsea was caught in a pickle and the rest of the market knew and they got squeezed hard and had to overpay for a new GK, IMHO. It makes no sense to sell Courtois for 35 million EUROS and then paying over 60 million pounds for Kepa. But I believe Kovacic loan is part of the deal on loan from RM so not a total crappy deal. Chelsea may have asked for that to finalize the deal. Either way the money for GKs has exploded into ridiculous land. Kepa should be signed for a 5 year deal and lock him up after paying that much for him. EDIT: Kepa signed a deal until 2025 last January so I think the price Chelsea paid reflects that he is under contract for next 7 years at fixed salary and that has some value in it.
Didn't consider Kovacic as part of this deal. Makes a little more sense. I still feel something is just not right though (as far as numbers reported). Either way, it is great to have Courtois at RM. I think he is one of the best GKs presently - I had never heard of Kepa.
Also Kepa is from Atletico Bilbao so Real had nothing to do with that, they basically got Courtois for a steal as he is still in his prime and Kovacic is buried behind other players. They get to loan him out and if he develops into world talent, they take him back. If not they sell him. Never heard of Kepa either so Chelsea taking on a big gamble with his fee and contract but in general most keepers are pretty good. RM is getting a really good keeper but not sure why they were looking to replace Navas...
If you had never heard of Kepa either and Chelsea is paying twice as much as what they are selling Courtois, there is no question they are cooking the books somehow, imo.
Or they have better scouts out there looking at talent than I do haha. Kepa is Spain's #2 Keeper so he is no slouch and reading about him he has had a great career so far and is only 23? I think Allison raised the price of GK pretty quickly and also right after WC lot of demand. Who knows but the prices are out of whack for sure. For Chelsea I sure hope it was a step up from the #1 or #2 keeper in the world to a kid...