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Former Chelsea defender Frank Sinclair has tipped Atletico Madrid's Jan Oblak to turn the Blues into title challengers once again, should the Slovenian make the move to Stamford Bridge.
Acknowledging the fact that Kepa Arrizabalaga is a young goalkeeper, Sinclair claimed that Chelsea should not miss the opportunity to snap up Oblak.
According to the 48-year-old, in order to rub shoulders with the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool, Chelsea will have to match them with similar standards in goal.
Despite dishing out a whopping £71 million for Kepa at the start of last season under Maurizio Sarri, Chelsea are visibly growing impatient with the player was backed to be a long-term replacement for Thibaut Courtois.
"Frank has lost trust in Kepa" - former Chelsea star Sinclair
Kepa did enjoy a decent debut season at Chelsea, but he has appeared short of confidence, making more mistakes and lesser save attempts.
More so, there has been a distinct lack of decision-making and authority from the Spaniard between the sticks, with not many clean sheets to show for.
Kepa did not feature earlier in the winter, and he was not picked for the FA Cup semi-final and final as Lampard gave the nod to veteran shot-stopper Willy Caballero.
As a result, Chelsea are now hunting for a goalkeeper in the transfer window, and have been linked to the likes of Nick Pope, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Andre Onana and Dean Henderson among others.
Oblak would reportedly cost a staggering £110 million, which means Chelsea would have coughed up close to £200 million for just two goalkeepers across a period of three years if the deal comes to fruition.
However, former Chelsea defender Sinclair believes it's fine to spend big on Oblak in order to contend for the Premier League title. He opined:
“It's not a secret that Frank lost this trust in Kepa. In previous games he's made some vital mistakes. However, you have to remember that he’s a really young goalkeeper, the £71m price tag shadows the fact that he's a young goalkeeper, fairly inexperienced in playing senior football and the standards are set very high for him."
Drawing comparisons with goalkeepers of title-winning sides such as Manchester City and Liverpool, the ex-Chelsea man added:
“At the same time, if you get the opportunity to bring in Jan Oblak then I think if you want to compete with Liverpool and Manchester City, Chelsea need a goalkeeper of the same standard and certainly Jan Oblak would produce that.”
It'll be interesting to see if Chelsea are ready to incur more losses at the moment, as very few clubs would be ready to accommodate the Slovenian's wages.
Elsewhere, Chelsea are also planning to add a left-back and Kai Havertz to their ranks this transfer window.
Also read: Reports: Chelsea makes contact with Atletico Madrid for Jan Oblak
