Chelsea said to be monitoring top Spanish international goalkeeper

CHELSEA are said to be monitoring Athletic Bilbao’s 26-year-old Spanish international goalkeeper Unai Simon.

Despite signing 25-year-old Robert Sanchez from Brighton during the summer transfer window, it was reported by 90min.com that representatives of the West London club were in attendance at the recent LaLiga match between Athletic and Valencia.

Valencia’s 23-year-old Georgian international stopper Giorgi Mamardashvili is also thought to be of interest to the Premier League club as Mauricio Pochettino strives to bring a top keeper to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea were in attendance for Bilbao's clash with Valencia, with Giorgi Mamardashvili and Unai Simon both being watched.

The club have also checked Diogo Costa this month and are maintaining a watching brief on Aaron Ramsdale.@90min_Football https://t.co/cpIFEVxdVq

— Graeme Bailey (@GraemeBailey) October 30, 2023

Which other keepers have Chelsea reportedly been looking at?

According to a tweet from Graeme Bailey, the 90min transfer expert, the Blues have also shown interest in Porto’s Diogo Costa as well as Aaron Ramsdale at Arsenal.

The latter lost his place as No 1 for the Gunners since the arrival at the Emirates Stadium of the Spanish international David Raya from Brentford on loan.

Chelsea signed Serbian international goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic from LMS outfit New England Revolution in the summer, and also have their Spanish international stopper Kepa Arrizabalaga currently on loan at Real Madrid.

Would Chelsea lose out if Madrid signed Kepa on a permanent basis?

The Spanish giants are rumoured to want to make Kepa’s move permanent, according to Andy Dillon at thesun.co.uk on Monday, October 30.

Arrizabalaga moved to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium as a replacement for Thibaut Courtois after he suffered a cruciate ligament injury on the eve of the new LaLiga season in Spain.

Should the move be sealed then Chelsea stand to lose out on the player they paid a world-record £71.6m to Athletic Bilbao for in 2018 with Los Blancos reportedly not prepared to pay more than £17.5m to secure his services.

Since his arrival in the Spanish capital, Arrizabalaga has helped Real Madrid to climb back on top of LaLiga. He took part in last weekend’s El Clasico where his team beat Barcelona 1-2.