Chelsea could have pulled off one of the best deals of the summer, after seeing Petr Cech leave the club for a reported £11 million, they are on the verge of completing the signature of Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic for a fee of around £8 million, while that deal seems to be dirt cheap, they have had to part with Marco van Ginkel, the highly rated Dutch midfielder.
Van Ginkel is to join Stoke City on a year-long loan deal, which actually is another brilliant bit of business by Chelsea on both fronts. They not only get one of the best goalkeepers in the world, on a relatively low sum, they also have sent out one of their best young players to gather experience in the league where he might have a future.
The 22-year-old Ginkel spent last season on loan at AC Milan where he played 18 games for them, he still needs more game time to fulfill his potential. Van Ginkel though will have the chance of making it into the Chelsea team in the near future, often Chelsea sell one of their young players but the fact that they are willing to send him out on loan again, especially in the Premier League, this will help him and Chelsea in the long term.
Ginkel might be a prospect for the future and playing for Mark Hughes in a revamped playing style of Stoke might just be the perfect measure of how good he actually is and how much he can develop. While we look at the future of Chelsea, the present goalkeeping scenario is another brilliant move by Jose Mourinho.
Asmir Begovic will be the understudy to Thibaut Courtois and that should push Courtois to greater heights this season. Begovic hasn’t joined the club to be on the bench and he will be looking to make sure that any slip-up by Courtois will be punished, as he hopes to get into the first team.
Chelsea could have the strongest goalkeeping line-up in the World; the only other team that might come close in that department could be Barcelona who have Ter-Steggen and Bravo as their goalkeepers. The shrewdness of Jose Mourinho cannot be questioned; he has pulled off a great deal by getting Begovic into the club and then sending out Van Ginkel to Stoke City. This is a win-win situation for the club as Van Ginkel’s experience of playing regularly in the Premier League will help them out in the future while Asmir Begovic’s experience should help them out this season as they try to retain their Premier League crown.