Jakub Stolarczyk must demonstrate he merits staying as Leicester City’s first-choice goalkeeper, with Marti Cifuentes opting not to establish a fixed pecking order.
City bolstered their senior goalkeeping group last weekend by signing Fran Vieites, the Spaniard arriving on a free transfer after leaving Real Betis last month.
Although Vieites was the backup at Betis last season, he featured in numerous games, including eight knockout clashes in the Europa Conference League, helping the La Liga outfit reach the final.
Stolarczyk, who claimed the number one jersey this summer and stepped up as the primary keeper following Mads Hermansen’s departure, is expected to retain his spot between the posts for now, particularly after a bright start to the season.
Yet while some managers prefer a defined ranking of their goalkeepers so everyone knows their status, Cifuentes wants his players to remain alert and prove why they deserve selection.
“It’s up to them,” the manager said. “You mentioned Fran, you mentioned Jakub, I mention as well Asmir (Begovic). We have three keepers with qualities. It’s up to them.
“I will just try to take the right decision to win football games. What I’m excited and happy about is that we have good competition with all of them.
“Asmir brings a lot of experience, he’s helping both of them. Fran, I’m actually impressed, he speaks much better English than I ever could have imagined. So he’s done really well in just a couple of days here. Now we need to give him time.
“Jakub has been brilliant. The last games, two clean sheets, doing well, growing every game. Now they need to compete and show who deserves to play.”
Utilising the free-agent market to secure a third senior goalkeeper follows standard practice across the sport.
It also ensures Stevie Bausor will gain more match experience as he won’t need to travel with the first team to provide cover at Championship fixtures.
The 20-year-old has only enjoyed one season as the development squad’s starting goalkeeper, so Vieites’ arrival allows him to return to the Under-21s and accumulate more minutes. There’s also the possibility of loaning him to a National League club if City want him to taste senior football.
Cifuentes said: “We thought we wanted three goalkeepers because with Stevie, who has been brilliant, we thought that at his age it was important for him to play games.
“Sometimes, as a goalkeeper, we know it’s more difficult to get minutes. He’s missing a lot of important games that he could play at this moment, at this stage of his development. So we felt we needed this third keeper.”