Thomas Tuchel plans to have an honest conversation with Kepa Arrizabalaga this summer about the goalkeeper's future at Chelsea after the Spaniard was not selected ahead of Edouard Mendy to face Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
Since the appointment of Tuchel in January 2021, Mendy has been Chelsea's undisputed first-choice stopper, and that has resulted in Kepa, who remains the world's most-expensive goalkeeper following his £71.6million switch from Athletic Club in 2018, playing the role of deputy at Stamford Bridge.
The 27-year-old has featured regularly in domestic cup competitions over the past 12 months and even started last season's FA Cup final against Leicester City, which ended in defeat for Chelsea. Yet this term, he has been benched for the Club World Cup final, Carabao Cup final and now appears unlikely to start the FA Cup final against Liverpool if fit.
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Tuchel says that these previous high-profile omissions have been a source of disappointment for Kepa. However, the Chelsea head coach says that Mendy will not be taken out of the starting XI during the season run-in as the Blues attempt to clinch third place in the Premier League and defeat Liverpool at Wembley next month.
And that is why the Chelsea head coach accepts that a discussion with Kepa will need to take place in the summer about his long-term future at Stamford Bridge. "We need to ask him, and we need to be honest with him. And he needs to be honest with us, this is the most important," the German said.
"He is still our player, and we don't know about the situation with the ownership, what is possible and what is not. So first of all, he is our player, and he is a fantastic guy to deal with this kind of situation, which is not easy for him.
"I felt his disappointment around the Club World Cup where he played a brilliant semi-final, but we put in Edou in the final. I felt his disappointment, I could understand it even, and we had a talk about it. I felt his disappointment also for the Carabao Cup final because he brought us there and had the feeling he deserved – and he was right – to play in the final. Still, we made the decision for Edou.
"It's always a thin line in these decisions, and there is never a 100% reason to go against Kepa because he deserves it, and we trust him. But this is such an obvious decision when you go for somebody [in goal] that you can't play the other person because there is no other position than goalkeeper. I think it will influence, of course, his feeling about it and how he sees it.
"Edou is the number one and deserves to be the number one. I think it's also important that a goalkeeper at this moment of the season feels this moment like it. I experienced different at other clubs, and it was never really good if you have these open situations – a mistake maybe then leads to a new open race. It's too sensitive this position for it.
"We need to be honest first of all [with Kepa], and he has to stay fully involved like he is; yesterday in training, he was simply fantastic. Then he has to be open with us. For me, nothing needs to change as I like him a lot, and we need strong goalkeepers because it's a crucial position. But we need to reflect on it in the summer."
