Is Asmir Begovic Throwing Away His Career by Joining Chelsea?
Asmir Begovic has been all smiles in the pictures announcing him as Chelsea's most recent signing this week.
It's to be expected. The Bosnian international has just left a mid-table club for the Premier League champions; of course he's going to be feeling proud of himself.
Begovic has swapped Ryan Shawcross for John Terry; Peter Crouch for Diego Costa; Mark Hughes for Jose Mourinho; a guaranteed first-team place for the bench.
Oh, wait, delete that last one.
"This is one of the best clubs in the world and it’s a dream for me to sign," Begovic told the Chelsea website soon after his unveiling on Monday.
"Once I knew Chelsea were interested, and after speaking to Jose Mourinho at length, I knew this was where I wanted to be. It feels amazing and I’m absolutely thrilled."
It's a smart bit of business from Chelsea. Having lost Petr Cech to bitter rivals Arsenal this summer, there was a need to replace their former No. 1 with a suitably talented goalkeeper.
In signing Begovic, Mourinho has done that.
Losing Cech was never going to be as drastic as some would have made us believe. Thibaut Courtois was first choice last season and played in more than 70 per cent of Chelsea's matches.
The impact on the starting lineup was going to be insignificant. It was more where Cech's departure left Chelsea when it came to the insurance policy on the bench, what it said about the club's ambitions.
Well, they've answered those doubts emphatically with Begovic.
It isn't enough to have just one talented goalkeeper these days. Long seasons call for big squads to absorb the effects of injury and fatigue.
It was for that reason Cech played as many games as he did last year, appearing 16 times.
Mourinho used him mainly for the cup games—Cech being Chelsea's custodian in the Capital One Cup final victory over Tottenham Hotspur—yet when it mattered most throughout the season, he was always the backup plan.
The CV of Arsenal's new No. 1 tells us he was a winner at Wembley and a Premier League champion. But was he? Really?
The Capital One Cup, sure, but not in the Premier League. In his supporting role, Cech didn't have enough opportunities to do enough to label himself as such.
Cech accepted his winners' medal on the final day of the season with grace, joining in the victory parade around the Stamford Bridge pitch and along the Fulham Road.
His smiles tell us he enjoyed the moment. If all that held any real significance to him, however, he wouldn't have left Chelsea this summer.
Cech knows that to be regarded a winner, to really feel you've deserved a medal, a player must be vital to everything a team has achieved.
Sitting on the bench isn't good enough; cheerleading your way to the winners' podium is nothing more than a lie.
Cech wants to win things by playing, only at Stamford Bridge that honour belongs to Courtois these days. And it will do for the foreseeable future.
That is why it's baffling for Begovic to make the move he has.
The goalkeeper is in the prime years of his career and could realistically command the No. 1 shirt at more Premier League clubs than just Stoke.
By joining Chelsea, he's effectively trading in first-team duties to warm the bench.
Given how Cech, a Chelsea legend with plenty of credit at Stamford Bridge after all he achieved there, failed to properly challenge Courtois last term, it's difficult to fathom how Begovic will fare any better.
And even if he plays as much as Cech did last season, will that be deemed enough for a goalkeeper who played 36 times for the Potters last term, a goalkeeper who has more 100 appearances to his name in the last three years?
No, and it shouldn't be, either.
Begovic is a goalkeeper of international renown, a player who has featured at the World Cup and has more than 170 Premier League starts in his career.
He's too young and too talented to be accepting indifference in the name of signing for an elite club.
Throughout Begovic's first interview with the Chelsea website, he said everything Chelsea fans want to hear.
"I'm here and ready to go," he stated, adding, "I'm excited about getting going [...] it's just about coming here and working hard."
When asked about the Chelsea squad, Begovic showed he is clearly enamoured with those he now calls team-mates.
"I’m definitely excited about playing with these guys," he explained.
It's almost like he's trying to convince himself he's made the right move.
Sure, who wouldn't want to play for Chelsea? The club offers the chance of winning trophies, playing in the Champions League, living in a glamorous part of London.
Being paid by a club that's in the Champions League and actually playing in the competition are different things altogether.
Mohamed Salah was sold the dream, as were Kevin De Bruyne, Filipe Luis and Juan Cuadrado in more recent times.
Ask any of that quartet and they'll testify the reality is far different to what they expected.
They all arrived confident they could make an impression, but when those ahead of them are more superior and ingrained in the club's philosophy, the challenge is made all the more difficult.
When there's only one space in the team for a goalkeeper, it makes it all the more tough.
Courtois is Chelsea's future. Mourinho made a big statement by choosing him over Cech last term, and after all that has passed, it's going to take an incredible turn of events for anything to change things.
Mourinho didn't crush Cech's Chelsea dream just to give it to another player.
The capture of Begovic is a great move for Chelsea, but one suspects not so much for the player.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes
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