Could Andre Villas-Boas be preparing to raid Lyon next summer to bring the French goalkeeper to Chelsea?
It is said that goalkeepers, like a fine wine, get better with age.
Look at Brad Friedel going strong at 40 for Tottenham, and Manchester United’s recently retired Edwin van der Sar for prime examples.
There are exceptions to this rule, there is a new wave of exciting young goalkeepers in world football, David de Gea, Woljiech Szczesny, Joe Hart and Manuel Neuer hope to continue to show that young goalkeepers too have plenty to offer.
Iker Casillas burst onto the scene young, and has maintained his level of performance, now a World Cup winner.
Chelsea’s Petr Cech was another who established his dominance as the Premier League’s best in the Jose Mourinho era.
Cech is now 29 and should be entering the peak of his career, however many are now considering his best days to be behind him.
Suffering a fractured skull in a clash with Reading’s Stephen Hunt was hardly his fault, and a string of other injuries and a dip in performance levels are putting his long-term Chelsea future at risk.
It appears clear from his injuries that Cech will not possess the capability to play until he is 40.
So who should Chelsea be looking at to replace him?
The answer is Hugo Lloris at Lyon, another of the new breed of young international goalkeepers.
France’s undisputed number one, he has already performed at a World Cup, where he did himself no disgrace, even if some of his more high-profile teammates did.
Lloris, 24, is destined for a move to one of Europe’s top teams in the near future, and Chelsea can steal a march on their rivals by swooping next summer.
He this year signed a new contract at Lyon, but that is just to ensure the club get a fair cut when he leaves as much as anything else.
If Chelsea sign him now they will solve a potential problem area and have a goalkeeper capable of performing at the highest level for the next decade.
At a time when one star is waning and another is rising it really would be the perfect signing.
– Chelsea fans do you want to sign Lloris to replace Cech? Who would you take instead?
images: © Ben Sutherland
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