When Chelsea signed Kepa Arrizabalaga in 2018, the fee of £71.6million was - and still is - a world record for a goalkeeper.
However, nearly two years on from his arrival, the former Athletic Club number one has yet to justify the hefty outlay.
Indeed, based on the latest player valuations from the CIES Football Observatory, the Spaniard’s stock has fallen dramatically.
According to CIES’ valuations , which look at factors including age, contract length and club and international career progress, Kepa is valued at €76.4m (£68m).
This is only a slight drop on what it cost to bring him over from La Liga, but we need to look beyond that figure alone when contextualising the buy.
In the same summer in which Chelsea signed Kepa, Alisson moved to Liverpool for €75m (£66.8m). Despite being two years older than the Blues keeper, the Brazilian has seen his value shoot up to £75m, behind only Ederson (£77.2m) on the list.
Looking further down the list, though, it becomes clear that valuations for goalkeepers are substantially lower than for outfield players.
Roman Burki, the Borussia Dortmund keeper linked with a Chelsea move as a potential replacement for Kepa, doesn’t even make the list - only three Bundesliga keepers are there, led by RB Leipzig’s Peter Gulacsi at £19m.
Goalkeeper is the only position where no player is valued above €100m, compared to three defenders across the big five leagues, four midfielders and 15 forwards.
Perhaps more tellingly, though, only five goalkeepers are valued at more than €50m (£44.5m) - former Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois is sixth on £42m. This suggests a big outlay on a keeper ought to be the exception rather than the norm, thereby increasing the pressure on those occasions when big-money fees are paid.
Only four goalkeepers have ever moved for €40m or more, with Gianluigi Buffon’s transfer from Parma to Juventus in 2001 holding the world record for more than a decade. Buffon’s trophies and his years of service make it easy to class that switch as a success, even to the naked eye, but Kepa hasn’t come close to having the same impact yet.
Indeed, based on StatsBomb data on FBRef , Kepa has the lowest save percentage of any Premier League goalkeeper to play more than half his team’s games this season, while Tottenham Hotspur’s Hugo Lloris has made more saves than Kepa despite playing less than half as many games.
He is also joint-last for Champions League save percentage, tied with Club Brugge’s Simon Mignolet, conceding nine goals from 18 shots on target against.
