By Chris Wright
Asmir Begovic has officially joined Chelsea from Stoke City and he bloody well has the scarf to prove it…
.@ChelseaFC is delighted to announce the signing of Asmir Begovic from Stoke City… http://t.co/KkMOeBzIWk pic.twitter.com/g2bPjRn770
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 13, 2015
Begovic has signed a four-year deal at Stamford Bridge with the fee undisclosed but reported to be somewhere around about £8million with Marco van Ginkel moving to Stoke on a year-long loan as a makeweight.
Chelsea have also confirmed that Begovic will actually be taking the No.1 jersey, with Thibaut Courtios retaining his No.13 squad number – not that the number on his back will make the blindest bit of difference.
The Blues have invested an awful lot of time, money and patience in Courtois’ development; development they’re obviously hoping will translate into 10+ years of first-choice, gold standard goalkeepership.
Begovic is joining as a League Cup ‘keeper and he knows it – which is puzzling really, seeing as though he could feasibly walk into most other club’s first teams after five-and-a-half years of reliably solid service at the Potters.
Oh well, we can’t blame him for taking the cushy/lucrative option really. It’s his career, after all.