For the second time in nearly a month the world record transfer fee for a goalkeeper has been broken. First, it was Liverpool’s new goalkeeper, Alisson Becker, for £67 million. Now, Chelsea has signed Kepa Arrizabalaga of Athletic Bilbao for £71.6 million. Once Thibaut Courtois made it known that he was looking to leave Chelsea for Real Madrid, the London club knew they needed a high quality replacement—and a high quality replacement this late in the window was always going to be expensive.



Kepa might seem like a bit of a gamble at that price tag. Any young goalkeeper would be. The 23-year-old has been Athletic Bilbao’s starter for two seasons and earned one cap for Spain. But when you factor in the £35 million Chelsea will get in return for Courtois, who was in the final year of his contract, the price tag doesn’t seem quite so steep.



I’ll admit that before this past week I had only seen a handful of Bilbao’s...