Former England goalkeeper David Seaman has criticised Chelsea stopper Kepa Arrizabalaga, claiming he was ‘disrespectful’ to teammate Willy Caballero during the EFL Cup Final.
The 24-year old refused to come off the field despite being substituted by manager Maurizio Sarri during Chelsea’s cup final tie against Manchester City, with the Italian coach wanting to switch goalkeepers shortly before the end of extra time and the upcoming penalty shootout.
Sarri was understandably furious with his player having undermined him, and Kepa was subsequently dropped for the Blues’ game against Tottenham on Wednesday, while he was fined a week’s wages by the club.
Seaman, speaking at the London Football Awards, claimed that Kepa could have calmed the situation by walking over to the technical area to talk to Sarri. Speaking to Sky Sports, Seaman said:
I don’t think anybody in football has seen anything like that.
I thought he was disrespectful not only to his manager but his fellow goalkeeper in Caballero.
He shouldn’t have been out there on the pitch wagging his finger; he should’ve gone over to the bench to explain himself because there was a miscommunication from the physios back to the bench.
Caballero wasn’t just warming up, he has his gloves on and was ready to go so a signal’s gone back saying he can’t carry on.
Kepa’s obviously not understood that and thinks he’s okay, but then he realises he’s being taken off so he should’ve just gone over and then that would’ve stopped everything, but that didn’t happen.
He’s been fined, he’s apologised and he’s been dropped so that’s good enough punishment for me and now he’ll have to wait and see if he gets his place back.
