REVEALED: The goalkeepers Chelsea want to replace Kepa and Mendy

Tom Hancock

• Updated: 14 Apr 2023 12:14 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea are targeting four goalkeepers as potential replacements for Kepa Arrizabalaga and Edouard Mendy this summer.

Kepa regained the number one spot from Mendy earlier this term, but it appears as though the Blues are looking to upgrade between the sticks for next season.

Brentford’s David Raya – who has also been linked with Tottenham – Inter Milan’s Andre Onana, Borussia Dortmund’s Gregor Kobel, and Valencia’s Giorgi Mamardashvili have all emerged as possible targets for the Blues.

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According to the Evening Standard, Chelsea have made contact with the agents of Raya, Onana and Kobel – while reports in Mamardashvili’s native Georgia claim that he is also of interest to the 2020/21 European champions.

Ostensibly, Raya would be the cheapest option, with our Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) model pricing the 27-year-old Spaniard at €12.1m – but money doesn’t seem much of an object to Chelsea, who have splurged more than €600m in the two transfer windows since Todd Boehly bought the club.

As such, 22-year-old Mamardashvili’s ETV of €32.1m shouldn’t prove particularly problematic for the big-spending Blues – although he may be available at a knockdown price, with Valencia facing the very real prospect of relegation from La Liga.

Time to move on?

Onana, 27 – who joined Inter on a free transfer last summer and has helped the Nerazzurri to the cusp of the Champions League semi-finals – and Kobel, 25 – Dortmund’s first-choice ‘keeper since arriving from Stuttgart two years ago – have ETVs of €16.5m and €29.1m respectively.

For comparison, Chelsea paid €24m to sign Mendy from Rennes in 2021 – one of the highest fees ever for a goalkeeper but an amount which pales in comparison to the world-record €80m they coughed up to lure Kepa from Athletic Bilbao just two years previously.

Neither player has consistently convinced during their time at Stamford Bridge, however, and it would be no surprise whatsoever to see the Blues drop top dollar on yet another custodian this off-season.