Chelsea might still need to sign a new GK this summer – Talk Chelsea

One issue that Sunday’s FA Cup game highlighted for me was the need to sign a new number one goalkeeper in the summer.

Both Robert Sanchez and Djordje Petrovic are decent competition options, but none of them convince me that at the moment, they are good enough to be our main number one going forward and if we want to challenge at the very top again, we need an elite stopper in the sticks.

Petrovic is not young, he is 24, and Sanchez is 26. For a goalkeeper you can argue that this IS young, and you’d be correct. You’d also be correct saying that there is still room and time for development for both keepers here, and I do actually believe that Petrovic can and will get better. But Sanchez for me I fear just lacks the confidence on the ball and in the sticks to be anything more than a backup.

Petrovic I do hold a bit more belief in though, and I actually think he has played well since coming in this season, and I’d be starting him over Sanchez. But both keepers are not good enough distribution wise, and for any team who want to build up from the back and want their goalkeeper to be comfortable taking the ball in high pressure situations, then I don’t think Petrovic or Sanchez is our guy.

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Who is? Not my job to find him! But we have people in this setup now using data to be able to find the ‘perfect’ option for us. Does perfect even exist? Who knows. But there are certainly goalkeepers out there who would be better suited to be Chelsea number one right now, and I truly believe this is just another position we need to be looking to sign in this summer.

Chelsea have certainly been looking at potential new goalkeepers for a while and they do like Aaron Ramsdale at Arsenal and have been keeping an eye on that situation. They also have a keen interest in Mike Maignan and Diogo Costa. But they have yet to make any contact or moves for a new goalkeeper, with belief in both of the stoppers they have.

Don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not writing Petrovic off, but he needs to get a lot better with the ball at his feet for me to be fully convinced that he can be the regular number one for Chelsea going forward.

Sanchez just concerns me all game and flaps at crosses, whereas I do have more confidence with Petrovic in the sticks. Even still, whilst his shot stopping has been pretty good, he has also let in some goals that he would have felt he could have saved.

The goalkeeper position is arguably one of the most important on the pitch, and I am just not sure that we have sorted that position or not.