As reported by Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea are ‘closing in on’ a deal to signal Villarreal goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen.
The Blues preliminary provide of round £17 million (€20 million) was rejected by the Spanish membership, however Chelsea have returned with an improved provide, which Nick Purewal of the Night Customary believes to be nearer to £20 million.
Romano believes negotiations are on the closing levels, so ought to be concluded quickly, with Jörgensen already agreeing contract phrases over his transfer to Stamford Bridge.
Since Clearlake Capital’s takeover of Chelsea, with Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and José E. Feliciano operating the membership, they’ve spent in extra of £1 billion on new gamers in simply two years, with Jörgensen’s impending arrival set to take this summer time’s spending near £100 million… and counting.
Omari Kellyman (19 million), Tosin Adarabioyo (free), Kiernan Dewsbury-Corridor (£30 million), Renato Veiga (£11.8 million), Caleb Wiley (£8.5 million) and Marc Guiu (£6 million) have all already arrived, that means the Blues at the moment have round 50 first staff gamers at the moment on their books, however they’re displaying no indicators of slowing down.
Who’s Filip Jörgensen?
Filip Jörgensen is a 22 12 months previous goalkeeper who, after bouncing round quite a few golf equipment at youth stage, together with Malmö and Mallorca, has spent his whole senior profession with Villarreal.
His debut got here in a Copa del Rey tie in opposition to lower-tier Atlético Sanluqueño in December 2021, earlier than having to attend over a 12 months for his maiden La Liga outing, this in opposition to Rayo Vallecano in January final 12 months.
Total, he’s now made 44 appearances for el Submarino Amarillo, beginning 36 La Liga matches final season, having displaced veteran Pepe Reina, who performed within the cup competitions.
Jörgensen made essentially the most saves of any goalkeeper in La Liga final season (143), 22 greater than anybody else, which additionally noticed him rank first for post-shot anticipated objectives, which measures the problem of the saves he needed to make.
Liam Twomey and Mario Cortegana of the Athletic reported that Olympique de Marseille have been additionally keen on Jörgensen, however he has had his coronary heart set on a transfer to West London from the oustet.
It’s not simply membership stage the place Jörgensen has an enormous resolution to make; he’s represented each Sweden and Denmark at youth stage, having been born in Lomma to a Danish father and Swedish mom, and is at the moment Denmark underneath 21’s first-choice goalkeeper, with the DBU believing he may very well be Kasper Schmeichel’s inheritor obvious.
Who can be Chelsea’s primary subsequent season?
Even earlier than Jörgensen joins, Chelsea have already got six first-team goalkeepers of their squad: Robert Sánchez, Đorđe Petrović, Marcus Bettinelli, Lucas Bergström, Eddie Seashore and Kepa Arrizabalaga, who’s returned following a mortgage spell at Actual Madrid.
Kepa’s proposed transfer to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia has damaged down, as reported by Soham Mukherjee in Purpose, nevertheless it nonetheless appears very possible that he’ll be shifting on this summer time.
Final season, Sánchez made 21 Chelsea appearances whereas Petrović performed 31 instances, with the latter ending final season as first selection.
Nevertheless, new boss Enzo Maresca reportedly favours the Spaniard, who began their first pre-season pleasant of the summer time on Wednesday, a 2-2 draw with Wrexham within the San Francisco Bay Space, whereas Petrović has remained at Cobham resulting from a minor damage.
At most golf equipment, in the event that they’re spending £20 million on a brand new goalkeeper, it could be protected to imagine they’re coming in to be primary, however with Chelsea you simply by no means know.
