It'd be extremely hard to argue that the decision to loan Thibaut Courtois to Atletico Madrid upon his arrival from Genk in the summer of 2011 wasn't a masterstroke: the Belgian has since announced himself firmly as the number one goalkeeper in the capital and been extremely impressive in the process with a string of superb performances.

The next stage of Courtois's development is inevitably stepping up to the Premier League. I'm not completely convinced that the idea that playing in England is radically different for goalkeepers as common mythology would suggest, but it does make sense that Chelsea want their elite prospect to spend some time acclimatising to the nature of the league that he'll eventually be playing in.

A report from AS indicates that Chelsea see that development happening sooner rather than later, in the season of 2013/12. Football-Espana is suggesting the staff would prefer that loan spell coming at a London club, which makes sense - it'd allow Courtois to live in the region and become comfortable in the area. On the whole, this sounds like a fairly reasonable idea, as Cech hasn't particularly shown any signs of decline, and it's certainly important that the process begins to ease the transition between the current stalwart and our long-term prospect.