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Chelsea missed out on signing Alisson Becker in 2018.
The London clubs were in advanced talks to sign the Brazil international from Roma, but dithered, and allowed Liverpool to steal a march on them.
At the time Chelsea were looking for a new keeper with Thibaut Courtois agitating for a move to Real Madrid. That prompted them to begin negotiations with keeper Alisson, but they became distracted trying to persuade Courtois to stay.
When it became clear that Courtois still wanted to go, they turned back to Alisson, but it was too late, and he signed for Liverpool for a world record fee of £67.5 million at the time. A few weeks later that was broken when Chelsea, in turn, signed Kepa Arrizabalaga for £71.6 million from Athletic Bilbao.
Liverpool definitely seems to have made a better deal. Alisson has solidified the Liverpool defence and solved a problem position for Jurgen Klopp, whilst Kepa has been inconsistent and had lost his first-team place under Frank Lampard until the season was halted.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.