Thibaut Courtois

[SykikJV 146]

He gets even more praise in Belgian press today :

- Toby Alderweireld (rightback for Ajax) describes him as "abnormally good for his age".

- Paul van Himst (one Belgian's finest football-players ever, aged 70) compares him to Lev Yashin, legendary goalkeeper, due to his charisma and stature in goal.

Hopefully he keeps both feet on the ground.

[SykikJV 146]

I said this had to happen a few weeks back, whilst my belief is that Courtois should be brought back to the club next season to challenge Cech for the jersey & to keep him on his toes, I believe this would be the ideal solution that can be beneficial for both Courtois & the club.

One more year away should be the absolute maximum though & if we are to sustain a title challenge, it still worries me that we do not have a quality back up to cover Cech, so definitely something the club need to consider.

Courtois won't risk losing the challenge to Cech down to experience and losing his place in the national team for WC14.

[ja1 1,166]

Blog post from Spanish journalist who rates Courtois as the best in the world:

http://laligauk.com/laligauk_yii_blog/index.php/BlogPosts/view/id/178/title/Courtois+-+The+Current+Best+in+the+World%3F

[The only place to be 11,313]

Courtois won't risk losing the challenge to Cech down to experience and losing his place in the national team for WC14.

Indeed - it would be massively unfair to bring this kid back only to sit him on the bench. How exactly does he get a fair shot at the number one spot anyway? Do they take it in turns? Does he have to impress against Wolves in the League Cup? Do we give them a half each?

When the change happens, it needs to be swift and decisive for the good of the team and for both keepers.

[Mundaka 243]

When the change happens, it needs to be swift and decisive for the good of the team and for both keepers.

Yeh wouldn't do any good for either Cechs or Courtois confidence, but the plan was/is to loan Courtois till 2015 and then take over... unless that changed.

[zolayes 14,489]

He gets even more praise in Belgian press today :

- Toby Alderweireld (rightback for Ajax) describes him as "abnormally good for his age".

- Paul van Himst (one Belgian's finest football-players ever, aged 70) compares him to Lev Yashin, legendary goalkeeper, due to his charisma and stature in goal.

Hopefully he keeps both feet on the ground.

except when dealing with crosses

[GodZola 630]

Courtois won't risk losing the challenge to Cech down to experience and losing his place in the national team for WC14.

Fair comment but purely a selfish one on the part of Courtois, unfortunately this won't be his decision to make, if the club decide to be selfish too then he will be brought back - whether that is ahead of Cech remains to be seen, its a fact that the ball is in clubs court I'm afraid.

Obviously with talks then an amicable agreement could be met from both parties.

[GodZola 630]

Indeed - it would be massively unfair to bring this kid back only to sit him on the bench. How exactly does he get a fair shot at the number one spot anyway? Do they take it in turns? Does he have to impress against Wolves in the League Cup? Do we give them a half each?

When the change happens, it needs to be swift and decisive for the good of the team and for both keepers.

So we continue to have 1 decent keeper who could get injured or experience a loss of form & then we are saddled with err.....mediocrity as back up & yet another season of battling for a CL place instead of winning the title. As I've already said many times if Jose returns he won't care less if he has to bench Cech in favour of Courtois or if he has to play Courtois on a wet Wednesday night at Scunthorpe, remember he made that decision before with a virtually unknown Cech in favour of our former No1 keeper Cudicini & arguably the best keeper in the Prem at the time & the detractors say he doesn't give youth a chance?

The decision has to favour this club moving forward & challenging again - as has been said before sentiment doesn't play a part in success that's part of why top managers become successful & their teams with it, also why Jose will want 2 keepers of quality but all positions covered this way.

Imo I would start Courtois ahead of Cech next season, big Pete is a great professional & won't sulk but support Courtois as Carlo did whilst being ready when the time comes. For those that think Courtois needs another year at A Madrid...........oh & then he hasn't got enough PL experience so let's loan him to West Ham for another year by which time he has little or nothing left on his contract & then won't sign another deal so we end up losing potentially the best keeper in the world through our own piss poor decisions whilst Cech is on his last legs - yeah great management that.

[The only place to be 11,313]

So we continue to have 1 decent keeper who could get injured or experience a loss of form & then we are saddled with err.....mediocrity as back up & yet another season of battling for a CL place instead of winning the title. As I've already said many times if Jose returns he won't care less if he has to bench Cech in favour of Courtois or if he has to play Courtois on a wet Wednesday night at Scunthorpe, remember he made that decision before with a virtually unknown Cech in favour of our former No1 keeper Cudicini & arguably the best keeper in the Prem at the time & the detractors say he doesn't give youth a chance?

The decision has to favour this club moving forward & challenging again - as has been said before sentiment doesn't play a part in success that's part of why top managers become successful & their teams with it, also why Jose will want 2 keepers of quality but all positions covered this way.

Imo I would start Courtois ahead of Cech next season, big Pete is a great professional & won't sulk but support Courtois as Carlo did whilst being ready when the time comes. For those that think Courtois needs another year at A Madrid...........oh & then he hasn't got enough PL experience so let's loan him to West Ham for another year by which time he has little or nothing left on his contract & then won't sign another deal so we end up losing potentially the best keeper in the world through our own piss poor decisions whilst Cech is on his last legs - yeah great management that.

So you put £100,000 p/w on the bench rather then cashing in on him? It would also be massively unfair to bench either one in a World Cup year and rob them of a season of playing professional football. I actually like both these guys so acting the cunt to either one of them doesn't exactly appeal to me.

Personally, I'd be fine with us installing Courtois as number one and letting Cech leave - it makes financial sense to cash in if we're not going to use him and bring in someone experienced as back-up and look for Blackman to get experience on-loan. But I don't think it works to have them both in the squad. They're both too good to sit on the bench and the one thing you don't want in that position is uncertainty. The defenders need to know who is going to be behind them and start building that rapport immediately.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

I agree we will have to sell cech sooner rather then later.

[GodZola 630]

So you put £100,000 p/w on the bench rather then cashing in on him? It would also be massively unfair to bench either one in a World Cup year and rob them of a season of playing professional football. I actually like both these guys so acting the cunt to either one of them doesn't exactly appeal to me. Personally, I'd be fine with us installing Courtois as number one and letting Cech leave - it makes financial sense to cash in if we're not going to use him and bring in someone experienced as back-up and look for Blackman to get experience on-loan. But I don't think it works to have them both in the squad. They're both too good to sit on the bench and the one thing you don't want in that position is uncertainty. The defenders need to know who is going to be behind them and start building thatwr rapport immediately.

As I've already stated, the best solution would be for the club to enter into extending Courtois contract with an improved deal, this ensures we tie him down for the long term, also state that the club have no intentions of harming his chances for the world cup next year so we will give you 1 final year at A Madrid, this would be sensible management because all parties win & Courtois will respect the club more for it & will want to play for the club even more. It is absolutely imperative that if we loan him out again we must tie him down or risk losing him to one of tge top clubs in Europe - Barca are already sniffing!

However this can only happen if we have a capable keeper as Cech's understudy, if you say Blackman then fair enough but I honestly can't judge him until I've seen him play regularly. We have slipped down the pecking order because of a number of issues, having 2 quality players in each position would go a long way to reverse that trend. I concur that it seems a little unfair to bench one, but as i said this is where titles are won - no coincidence that the year Cech & Cudicini were injured in the same game we relinquished the title. Paying Cech 100k a week has absolutely no relevance imo, why should it be different for keepers as opposed to strikers, defenders - Torres & Terry are spending large parts on a sabbatical yet we pay them nearly double that. The reason why Man U will win the title this year is because they have 4 strikers that perform but they spend large parts on the bench.

As I said before, it can be fine margins & if we don't get a quality back up for Cech then it could cost us the title & I hope those that don't feel the need for this come on here when we have failed & admit they got it wrong. As with Jose, Lukaku, de Bruyne, Courtois amongst some exciting fringe players I'm eagerly looking forward to the decisions in coming months - I just hope the club make the right decisions & we can all be basking in title glory next year.

[Hamilton 2,120]

Courtois got his 24th clean sheet last tuesday, this out of 41 games. No goalie is doing better at the moment.

Still he doesn't think he's top 5 off the world. "I can't think something like that about myself. Let's say that one day i would love to be top 5 off the world."

"Who's top 3 for me? Cech would be in that list. Valdes is good, also Neuer and De Gea to. Casillas is injured at the moment, so can't look at him"

[magic weeds 446]

Courtois got his 24th clean sheet last tuesday, this out of 41 games. No goalie is doing better at the moment.

Still he doesn't think he's top 5 off the world. "I can't think something like that about myself. Let's say that one day i would love to be top 5 off the world."

"Who's top 3 for me? Cech would be in that list. Valdes is good, also Neuer and De Gea to. Casillas is injured at the moment, so can't look at him"

Meh. *facepalm*, well he is better than Turnbull

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I think sentiment is clouding a lot of people's judgement. Me most definitely included. I would say that Courtois isn't as good as Cech right now, but it would make sense in the long-term to even bring him in this summer (more likely in 2014/2015) and allow Cech to leave. It would be unfair to play them off one against the other, in my view.

It will be a sad day when Petr Cech leaves, but even the greatest goalkeepers can be replaced.

[Stingray 9,441]

I think sentiment is clouding a lot of people's judgement. Me most definitely included. I would say that Courtois isn't as good as Cech right now, but it would make sense in the long-term to even bring him in this summer (more likely in 2014/2015) and allow Cech to leave. It would be unfair to play them off one against the other, in my view.

It will be a sad day when Petr Cech leaves, but even the greatest goalkeepers can be replaced.

Uh? Wow. Did defo NOT see this comment coming from you Alex :-)