Kepa Arrizabalaga of Chelsea. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
In a meeting with Inter Milan officials, a representative of Chelsea offered to include Kepa Arrizabalaga in any potential trade for Andre Onana.
According to Italian outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport, (h/t Football Italia) the Blues are scheduled to meet with Inter this week to discuss the Onana transfer before their Coppa Italia match against Juventus.
However, the Italian team have put in a €40 million price tag on the Cameroon goalie. However, Chelsea are also prepared to give Kepa to northern Italy in return, which is an attractive notion.
Chelsea are reluctant to keep him for the upcoming season, as Kepa declined terribly due to less game time under Thomas Tuchel.
Kepa, who was dropped out of the first position under Tuchel, rose to the top spot once more under previous manager Graham and has since retained it under interim manager Frank Lampard.
However, the custodian has frequently faced criticism for his stopping skills since many people think he is small and has a tendency to move slowly when keeping. Eduardo Mendy’s future is also up in the air, as he has not yet renewed his contract.
In 33 games in all competitions so far this year, Onana has kept 15 clean sheets, making him one of Inter’s top players.
In addition to assisting Inter Milan to reach the 2022-23 Champions League semifinals, Onana also helped Ajax reach the Champions League semi-final in 2019. Onana has been outstanding this year, as seen by the clean sheet highlighted above.
Onana is confident with the ball at his feet and is also pretty good at coming off his lines. He is a force to be reckoned with in one-on-one situations and is also a ‘keeper that doesn’t make a lot of basic errors.
This is surely a smart deal to pursue for us as it can help us get rid of a player we can easily upgrade on. But then again, we have to negotiate a price that makes sense for us as well. We have to balance our books after the excessive spending under Todd Boehly in addition to spending elsewhere to solidify the team across the pitch.
Hence, one would hope that including the Spanish goalkeeper in a swap deal either takes away the whole amount we may have to pay for Onana, or bring it down by a considerable extent.
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