When Marcus Bettinelli made his Chelsea debut earlier this month, it was an appearance that was seven years in the making.
The Blues first showed interest in the goalkeeper in 2015, as they sought competition for Thibaut Courtois; but the custodian decided against it at the time feeling that he hadn’t played enough first-team matches at Fulham and needed time to develop before taking such a leap.
But having originally turned down the opportunity to make the short switch across west London, Bettinelli has finally donned Chelsea blue.
Marcus Bettinelli made his Chelsea debut in the FA Cup third round against Chesterfield
Who knows whether he adds to his debut for the club after the 5-1 win over Chesterfield nine days ago.
Chances are he’ll play again, he still has 18 months left to run on his contract at Stamford Bridge.
But Bettinelli will always be able to say he played for the European champions, you can’t take that away from him.
It wasn’t too long ago that Bettinelli was in the England squad, of course – Gareth Southgate calling him into his Euros qualification party in 2019.
Bettinelli was called up to the England squad back in 2019 by manager Gareth Southgate
He’ll have to put his international career on hold for the time being, but who knows what the future brings.
For now though, Bettinelli is fully focused on the season ahead – assisting Edouard Mendy and Kepa Arrizabalaga in his role as a functional goalkeeper.
When his contract at Fulham expired last summer, he had numerous offers to be a No 1 in the Championship.
But after over 250 career games – and at the age of 29 – Bettinelli clearly felt the most effective way of fine tuning his game was to train day-in-day-out with world class goalkeepers, even if it meant sacrificing regular matches.
Despite turning down the opportunity of joining Chelsea in 2015, the interest continued to run in the background.
And when Petr Cech made contact in the summer, Bettinelli’s mind was made up.
Bettinelli signed for Chelsea after speaking to Petr Cech (right) and Carlo Cudicini
Aston Villa made an approach, but after speaking to Cech and Carlo Cudicini there was no turning back.
Training with Mendy and Kepa everyday will add a new dimension to his repertoire, if and when leaves Chelsea he’ll do so a better goalkeeper.
Indeed, Bettinelli is young enough to leave Chelsea to go on and become first-choice and have longevity elsewhere.
But that scenario is at least 18 months down the line. Bettinelli has his sights fixed firmly on the here and now.