Birmingham goalkeeper Butland turns down Chelsea move
Wednesday 30 January 2013
Jack Butland has turned down the chance to join Premier League Chelsea despite his club, Birmingham City, accepting a £3m offer for the England international according to the Daily Mail.
Birmingham are in troubling financial straits and while they were reluctant to lose one of their brightest young prospects, they could not reject the money on offer. However, Butland does not want to move to a club where he is unlikely to see first team football, potentially risking his development as a player and rejected the approach from the Champions League winners.
Chelsea not only have first choice goalkeeper Petr Cech and back-up Ross Turnbull, but also young Belgium international Thibaut Courtois on their books. Courtois was signed in 2011 from Genk but has spent the last season-and-a-half on loan in La Liga with Atletico Madrid.
He has played almost 80 games to Atleti in that time but has yet to make an appearance for his parent club - but has played against them, in the European Super Cup, a match Atletico won 4-1.
Butland broke into the Birmingham first team at the start of this season, having travelled to Euro 2012 with England as Roy Hodgson’s third-choice goalkeeper after John Ruddy broke a finger. Butland’s senior international debut came after the tournament in an early season friendly against Italy. Butland played the first-half as England won 2-1, putting him in the unusual position of making his senior England bow before playing a game for his club.
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