However, José Mourinho was ruthless when he became Chelsea manager in 2004. Very good was not good enough. Mourinho wanted the best and one of the main factors behind the Portuguese winning the Premier League during his first season in charge was the decision to replace Cudicini with Petr Cech.
There is an old line about a great goalkeeper being worth 15 points a season. It is not for nothing, for instance, that Brian Clough regarded Peter Shilton as one of his most important signings at Nottingham Forest. Shilton was key when Forest defied the odds by winning the Division One title in 1978 and there are plenty of other examples of promising teams taking the next step only after buying a top No 1.
Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool did not become the finished article until signing Alisson in 2018, while Arsenal might not have finished top last season without David Raya’s crucial save during the 1-0 win over West Ham in May. Chelsea, though, developed a blind spot after selling Thibaut Courtois to Real Madrid eight years ago. A host of inconsistent goalkeepers have come and gone, or in some cases stuck around long after it became clear they were not a patch on Cech and Courtois, and it is only now that Chelsea have tackled the issue head on.
The £7.5m signing of Emiliano Martinez from Aston Villa adds to the sense that this will go down as the summer when BlueCo got serious. The focus on youth remains but has lowered in intensity and the decision to ditch Robert Sánchez after his clumsy performance during last Monday’s 3-2 win over Fulham shows that Xabi Alonso will not hesitate to make the big calls. The only frustration for supporters is that it has taken this long for Chelsea to give up on Sánchez, three years after signing him from Brighton for £25m.
There have been occasional challenges but none have lasted. Mauricio Pochettino switched to Djordje Petrovic midway through the 2023-24 season, only for Enzo Maresca to return to Sánchez after becoming Chelsea’s head coach in the summer of 2024. Filip Jörgensen, signed from Villarreal as Sánchez’s deputy two years ago, then had chances to establish himself as the No 1.
Jörgensen is better than Sánchez with his feet but struggled to convince. Maresca did not stick with the Dane after bringing him into the side in February 2025. The turning point in Liam Rosenior’s brief reign came when his decision to select Jörgensen over Sanchez in a Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain last season backfired so badly that Chelsea lost 5-2.
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