Jose Mourinho must prioritise youth over experience or risk losing a potential world beater for good.
Loyalty is a much debated topic in modern football – especially where Chelsea are concerned.
Did Frank Lampard show the club disloyalty by joining Manchester City, or did the Blues show him the same when they released him this summer?
Did Romelu Lukaku show the club disloyalty by reportedly rejecting a new deal and choosing to join Everton, or did Jose Mourinho show him the same by refusing to guarantee him a place in his side?
Whichever you believe, the issue is about to repeat itself at Stamford Bridge, when Mourinho makes his final choice as to which goalkeeper will be his no.1 for the season.
On the one hand, the Portuguese boss can indeed side with loyalty, giving Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup winning goalkeeper Petr Cech the nod.
On the other, the 51-year-old can prioritise the future and install 22-year-old Thibaut Courtois as his main man in between the posts.
It is a situation like this where the very concept of loyalty becomes scrutinised – deeply. If Mourinho is to side with Cech, he will be rewarding the hard work of a man who has now been in west London for 10 long years.
He is only 32 but, make no mistake, Cech is a veteran.
However successful Chelsea’s veteran has been over the last decade, though, reports suggest Mourinho risks losing Courtois if he is not afforded the no.1 spot within his Blues squad. The Belgian wants first-team reassurances and may seek a move away from the Bridge if he doesn’t get them.
Even if Courtois is loaned out for another season, meanwhile, Chelsea will be granting another club full access to his services without demanding a sizeable transfer fee. Financially, it makes no sense.
And that, in the end, is what it will most likely come down to: in Courtois, the Blues have a goalkeeper who is so good at 22 that he will easily become one of the world’s best shot stoppers in the years to come.
Siding with Cech, then, would reward loyalty but deprive Chelsea of a future world beater. It wouldn’t be financially viable, nor would it make sense in the long term.
If Mourinho can figure out a plan where both play a set amount of games, he should do so. But if both want first-team football, choosing Courtois over Cech is the Blues’ only option.
As they say in the Godfather, ‘it was never personal, it was only business.’
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