Chelsea eye Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simon this summer. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Have you heard of the “butterfly effect”? Google defines it as “the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state”.
Would anyone imagine that an incident that happened in the training ground of Real Madrid would affect the life of a 24-year-old Serbian goalkeeper? Well, precisely, that is exactly what has happened with Djordje Petrovic.
When Thibaut Courtois, a former Chelsea goalie and arguably one of the best shot-stoppers in the world over the past couple of seasons tore his ACL chasing a ball during training during pre-season, little did Petrovic who was then a part of New England Revolution know what life had in store for him six months later.
Days after Mauricio Pochettino assured that Kepa Arrizabalaga was ahead of summer signing Robert Sanchez in the pecking order, Real Madrid stole the Spaniard from under Chelsea’s nose. A chance to represent one of the biggest clubs in his home country was an opportunity that the Blues’ £71.6m signing could not turn down.
Kepa joined Los Blancos on loan, for the season, leaving Chelsea desperately short of options in goal. It must be remembered that Eduardo Mendy was allowed to leave for Al-Ahli in a transfer worth £16million. Who did the Blues turn to? The lesser-known Djordje Petrovic signed for the club in a deal worth £14m and was expected to provide backup to Robert Sanchez.
For much of the season’s early months, that’s exactly what the Serbian did, until fate struck. An untimely injury to Robert Sanchez saw Petrovic being handed his chance between the sticks and boy, hasn’t he taken the opportunity with both hands! His penalty shootout heroics ensured that the Blues managed to beat Newcastle United and enter the semifinals of the Carabao Cup.
In an interview with the official Chelsea website, Djordje Petrovic opened up on how Matt Turner’s transfer to Arsenal made him dream big.
“It was a good opportunity. I wanted to change something, to try something new. I heard good things about Boston, a nice city to live. And I saw [Matt] Turner, the former goalkeeper they sold to Arsenal. They sent me the offer after that. I saw they could sell a goalkeeper to Arsenal. It made me think I could do something similar and come back to Europe. But honestly, I never imagined Chelsea!”
It must be said that we are working with a very small sample size, when it comes to Djordje Petrovic. He has made a good start to his life at Chelsea. It’s just the beginning though and the 6 foot 3 inch goalie has a long way to go.
Regardless, Petrovic is likely to continue in goal until Sanchez is back. A case can be made for him to start ahead of the former Brighton shot-stopper considering how error-prone the Spaniard has proven to be. Let’s wait for a bit longer before passing a judgement on the Serbian goalie.
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