Courtois Should Take Priority Over Current Star

It’s always healthy to have competition in a team. Each player pushing the others to become better as they obviously want to tie down a consistent place in the starting line up. The flip side of this is that tension could be created in the ranks because if one player is in form then they’re not likely to be benched and this would anger the alternative option who wants to play week-in-week-out.

It’s a balancing act that troubles managers across the globe.

Thibaut Courtois is a player that has truly excelled in his three year stay at Atletico Madrid and has plenty of trophies; the most recent of which being the La Liga. However, as the deal with Madrid is only a loan spell, he’ll have to return to Stamford Bridge over the summer and decide where his future lies from there.

The BBC have quoted Courtois’ suggestions that if he did move back and stay then it would not be the ‘healthiest thing’.

As much as I like Petr Cech and think he is a superb ‘keeper, Chelsea’s future is Courtois. But, they’re running out of time to convince him to stay at the club for the future.

His experience at the new La Liga champions has been extremely positive and is getting game time every week. At Chelsea, Jose Mourinho will rotate Cech and Courtois which will make neither of them happy. The former managed 16 clean sheets this season which was the joint-most in the Premier League and that suggests the Czechoslovakian hasn’t lost it.

However, Courtois is 22 and is well on the way to becoming one of the best goalkeepers of his generation. Chelsea simply can’t throw that away because of Cech’s status within the club. If it means cutting ties with the 32-year-old then so be it. Ideally the Blues won’t have to, but they have to make the on-loan star their man priority.