Chelsea news: Fulham keeper Marcus Bettinelli may reject move

Chelsea face an unexpected battle to convince Marcus Bettinelli to give up a fight against relegation from the Championship for a chance of playing in next season’s Champions League.

Fulham goalkeeper Bettinelli has emerged as one of the candidates Chelsea are considering to replace Petr Cech in the summer.

Queens Park Rangers goalkeeper Robert Green and Tottenham Hotspur veteran Brad Friedel are among Chelsea’s list of options, but manager Jose Mourinho has taken a personal interest in Bettinelli.

The 22-year-old’s father Vic is Fulham’s academy goalkeeping coach and looks after Mourinho’s son Jose Mario.

Mourinho watched Bettinelli in Fulham’s 1-1 draw with Rotherham and the player only has a year remaining on his Craven Cottage contract.

But it is understood Bettinelli is concerned that a move to Chelsea to be understudy to Thibaut Courtois would not be good for his development or his future career.

Courtois could be Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper for the next decade, which means Bettinelli would barely get a look in at Stamford Bridge.

^{Brad Friedel (right) has seen Michel Vorm take the reserve keeper role at Tottenham}

While 35-year-old Green and 43-year-old Friedel would jump at the chance to finish their careers at Chelsea, Bettinelli is more concerned with playing as much regular first-team football as possible.

Arsenal and Roma target Cech is ready to ask for a move at the end of the season, which has prompted Chelsea to draw up a list of potential replacements.

Meanwhile, Mourinho remains privately hopeful that all of his strikers could still be fit for Chelsea’s top-of-the-table clash with Arsenal on Sunday.

Mourinho gave his players two days off and permission to fly home to their native countries after the victory over Manchester United. They returned to training on Tuesday in preparation for the trip to the Emirates.

^{Petr Cech has an army of suitors to take him on next season}

Chelsea will this week test the fitness of Diego Costa to see whether the club’s top scorer can recover from his latest hamstring injury in time to face Arsenal, while Loïc Rémy is working hard with the club’s medical staff to try to overcome a calf problem.

Didier Drogba, who missed a charity match on Monday because of an ankle injury, is hoping to be fit.

Should Chelsea beat Arsenal and then Leicester three days later, they will be crowned Premier League champions.

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