Last week, Chelsea completed
a move for 40 year old goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, interestingly on a one year
deal. Obviously due to his age, Schwarzer has taken this move as a means of
getting one last “hoorah” from his career, after Fulham signed highly rated
Dutch goalkeeper Martin Stekelenburg from AS Roma.
Of course it is highly
unlikely and unexpected that Schwarzer will take the place of Petr Cech, one of
Chelsea’s greatest ever goalkeepers, but he will provide much needed cover.
Ross
Turnbull and Henrique Hilario both played in occasional FA cup or league cup
games, but neither ever impressed too much when called upon. Hilario had a
stint of games shortly after his arrival at the club in the summer of 2006 when
both Petr Cech and then back-up Carlo Cudicini had been sidelined due to
horrific injuries in the same game against Reading, and he kept a clean sheet
against all the odds in one game against the then European Champions FC
Barcelona under the management of Frank Riijkard, but there was never any real
doubt as to who was the first choice. Ross Turnbull featured briefly in the
2009/10 season when Cech got injured again, but conceding four at home to
Manchester City showed Turnbull was not on Cech’s level. With all due respect, Schwarzer
is probably better than both Hilario and Turnbull, but on a one year contract,
little can be gained from playing him instead of and over Cech.
One must feel slightly
sorry or disappointed for Jamal Blackman, Sam Walker and Matej Delac, who are
all young goalkeepers at Chelsea, who must have thought the departures of
Hilario and Turnbull would give them a chance at cracking into the first team. However,
Chelsea’s desperation to replace the two outgoing goalkeepers showed a real
lack of trust and almost a dismissal of the players they already have. There were
efforts to bring in John Ruddy from Norwich City for £5 or £6 million, but with
a one year deal being sought, Chelsea were warned off.
The reason Chelsea were
not willing to pay too much or to sign anyone too long term was because of the
presence of Thibaut Courtois at the club. The Belgian has been very impressive
both domestically on loan as well as for his country, and could well be a great
goalkeeper of the future. Chelsea signed the 1 meter 99 centimeter goalkeeper
from KRC Genk in the summer of 2011, but he has yet to play for the West London
outfit. He is set to spend a third consecutive season in Spain playing for Atletico
Madrid, where he helped his adopted club win the 2012/13 Copa Del Rey, with a
magnificent performance in the final against Atletico’s city rivals Real
Madrid.
Clearly the upper echelons at Chelsea want to keep Courtois, but they
do not want him challenging Cech just yet, as at the moment, both are far too
good to be any sort of back-up. Ironically, Cech may eventually be pushed away
to make way for Courtois in the same way Cudicini was pushed away to make way
for Cech upon his 2004 arrival from Rennes.
Schwarzer proved last
season that he still possesses certainly a good enough level of efficiency to
put Chelsea in safe enough hands (pun intended) in the case of Cech getting
injured or suspended. Despite his ability, Schwarzer is old enough and
experienced enough to know the situation with Cech and Courtois for the coming
seasons, and will do what he’s asked and required to do before perhaps retiring
or maybe returning to Australia to play in the A-League possibly, or maybe
another league in Asia or the United States, as so many other winding down
players have done in recent years. Certainly, this is a necessary and wise move
from Chelsea.
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