Petr Cech

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

I know they've cited COVID but what are the chances 3 GKs will go down with COVID at one go? Or 3 with injuries at one go? It will be interesting to see who's on the bench v United for the GK position. 

That's because if one goes down to COVID, the rest may have to isolate and miss games. That is why Cech is training separately from the rest of the team to avoid an outbreak affecting all the keepers.

[NikkiCFC 7,602]

You just need two GKs to go down due to Covid or one to Covid, one injured to need 4th choice.

Mendy already had injury and he also has int. games just like Kepa. So Petr is definitely 4th choice.

And tbh he has been hockey goalie this past year so that helps. And since he is on the training ground all the time why not? No problem here for me.

[OneMoSalah 8,616]

Just now, Jason said:

That's because if one goes down to COVID, the rest may have to isolate and miss games. That is why Cech is training separately from the rest of the team to avoid an outbreak affecting all the keepers.

Still think it will be a rarity but you never know.

I think like Tomo said he's gonna be signed and once fit, be in as the number 2. Based off what we've seen from Kepa and even Willy in the last 6 or 7 months I am not surprised one bit either even if I think its a risky move.

Suppose he will bring experience and a bit of the old mentality back to the changing room which may give some of these boys a bit of help. But I do think its a bit of an odd signing. If we wanted a 4th choice GK why not just use one of the young guys? Or one of the many many loan army GKs like Jamal Blackman or something. Although I suppose the circumstances are a bit different with regards to Cech being a non contract player, not fully sure what the fuck that means entirely yet other than he doesn't have a contract but there's bound to be some loophole based on how we've registered him in the 25 man squad. 

4 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Özil publicly supports mass murdering dictators without any regrets

Perhaps but that's a can of worms and you'll find someone who would say person X is this and person Y is that because its all perspective and Ozil, Gundogan, Tosun are all Turkish/of Turkish descent. Plus the whole fallout from there resulting with his retirement, it was even more of a mess and I am sure the German FA came out and said that afterwards in hindsight. I assumed you meant through genuine footballing reasons but yeah 350,000 to sit on his arse though - well whatevers left when he pays for the mascot's weekly wage - and basically play Fortnite 24/7, worse jobs out there. Lampard should follow suit with Kepa though if Cech and Caballero go ahead of him though in his thinking (would say they already are). Just put the guy out of his misery and make it very clear. Same with Emerson. Same with anyone else he doesn't fancy. 

[Hutcho 8,443]

 

 

 

Think this is a stupid decision. Lampard has came out and said he wants to support Kepa then takes a guy whos been retired for 2 years in as a emergency GK. Talk about contradiction. Also so naive someone who hasnt played or trained for 2 years even if as an emergency GK, sort of message does this send out to Kepa and Caballero? Completely demoralising.

 

1... He has been training and keeping fit.

2... What you expecting Frank to say to the media. No he's pure shit and willy ain't much better?

3...He's not really been signed he's there as a technical director so it makes it easier.

4... It's not like hes some random ex keeper. His Petr fucking Cech lol.

5... Final point, let's be real here. Do we really care the message it sends to kepa or willy. Neither have a future here. Willy is a journeyman who I'm sure will get it. Kepa has had a million chances to have an average game and he can't do it at the moment. It's better for kepa he stays out the limelight.

 

Ive just thought this must be more than an emergency measure. Had we lost two keepers we'd have been able to register an emergency one like when we signed and registered Hedman in 2006 (when Cech and Carlo got injured).

I think he's getting registered to be the number two.

It's been a while since he retired but I'd happily bet he's still better than them 2. That being said I'd rather we didn't see him in goal because mendy is just bossing it. Fingers crossed.

 

 

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Still think it will be a rarity but you never know.

I think like Tomo said he's gonna be signed and once fit, be in as the number 2. Based off what we've seen from Kepa and even Willy in the last 6 or 7 months I am not surprised one bit either even if I think its a risky move.

Suppose he will bring experience and a bit of the old mentality back to the changing room which may give some of these boys a bit of help. But I do think its a bit of an odd signing. If we wanted a 4th choice GK why not just use one of the young guys? Or one of the many many loan army GKs like Jamal Blackman or something. Although I suppose the circumstances are a bit different with regards to Cech being a non contract player, not fully sure what the fuck that means entirely yet other than he doesn't have a contract but there's bound to be some loophole based on how we've registered him in the 25 man squad. 

Am sure there is one from the long list of U21 players...

https://www.premierleague.com/news/1869523

[OneMoSalah 8,616]

8 minutes ago, Hutcho said:

 

 

 

 

 

1... He has been training and keeping fit.

2... What you expecting Frank to say to the media. No he's pure shit and willy ain't much better?

3...He's not really been signed he's there as a technical director so it makes it easier.

4... It's not like hes some random ex keeper. His Petr fucking Cech lol.

5... Final point, let's be real here. Do we really care the message it sends to kepa or willy. Neither have a future here. Willy is a journeyman who I'm sure will get it. Kepa has had a million chances to have an average game and he can't do it at the moment. It's better for kepa he stays out the limelight.

 

 

It's been a while since he retired but I'd happily bet he's still better than them 2. That being said I'd rather we didn't see him in goal because mendy is just bossing it. Fingers crossed.

 

 

True he has been training and keeping fit but he was out the game for over 12 months. Since May 2019, EL final. I know GKs different position so maybe not as big a risk as I originally thought IF he comes in in the capacity as an emergency option.

No obviously not expecting Frank to say that but saying what he said and now, making this move, "as an emergency option", do you really believe we'd be signing Petr Cech as an emergency 4th choice GK? Even with COVID? After we've just had a minor injury to our main GK and the back up has had another bad game after 6-8 months of them? When we already have what 2 other players who could have filled in for one game if there is an academy player in that 25 man squad too through the u21s (although I do see the complications playing 1 game with the first team then going n returning to the u23s/18s/whatever with COVID but again Caballero could have also played and we aren't going to be down more than 2 GKs at once). I know the squads were just confirmed but if Kepa say started the season well in the games he had played do you think Cech would of been signed as a emergency option or if Caballero had played and done well? I don't think its any real coincidence. Its probably been in the works for weeks as well because there were photos of him with his gloves and cap on involved with training what last month?

Neither have a future here, that's the point, if that's the case just bin them/demote them/do whatever. Put them with the kids or u23s. Willy would of been sufficient as a number 2 anyway I think despite him not being overly convincing and he's not that good but he's surely more likely to be more consistent than Kepa. It is better for Kepa to stay out of the limelight so if Cech comes in and takes the number 2 position and Kepa goes out of the squad for the first few times you think that's going to "keep him out of the limelight" just think... worlds most expensive GK relegated to 3rd/4th choice behind previously retired and current Chelsea technical director Petr Cech.. that's going to make every sports newspaper/website in the country at some point if it happens, so just cut our loss, not embarrassing the guy even more to the point where keeping him around becomes an issue. Demote and try get him a club for January be it a transfer or a loan.

Lampard's persistence playing him when he was underperforming, has contributed towards what he is now a tiny bit as well and I think Caballero probably in hindsight looking back would of been the lesser evil although I will admit, I was of the belief Kepa could have changed it around and I think the fact the club were interested in a new GK coach at some point last season wasn't a coincidence either but probably more of the effort to try see if Kepa could turn the corner with a different coach in the same way some teams change it with new managers also. The persistence in playing him similarly to like Andreas with Conte isn't obviously the main reason why a player loses their confidence or ability but it definitely isn't ideal either. Both were given numerous opportunities but just cannot/couldn't seem to redeem themselves and went backwards. I mean look at what people thought of Christensen after 3 months under Conte to after that Barcelona game he went from "one of the top young CBs in the world" to not good enough after what maybe 3 big mistakes in a run of 5 games. And Conte did keep faith with him, which might work with some players but not always. 

[NikkiCFC 7,602]

Buffon is 4 years and 4 months older and still Juve number 2. Why not.

[King Kante 1,324]

Lets be honest here, Cech is not GK4. If this was the case and he is there only for injury emergencies i.e. two out of Kepa, Mendy and Willy going down, we could've registered him anyway due to the GK emergency rules. Hence, the club must've done this for him to be GK3 at the very least. In my opinion, Kepa/Willy will continue to ride the bench but if Mendy goes down, but expect some non-specified injuries to afflict Kepa and Willy that same week if it does happen. 

As for Kepa, it is hard not to feel a bit sorry for him, as I do not think he actually has a attitude problem. However, at the same time he is absolute garbage and deserves to be GK4 on form. That is the reality and one that was being pointed out a while ago by a few of us on here. 

As for Cech, his last season at Le Arse made him a better GK than Willy and Kepa, so I am not really worried about using him as that was only 17 months ago. Plenty of GK2's go similar amounts of time without playing or only playing a game or two. Fitness is the only issue here but GK's do not exactly need to get through hard yards and from the looks of it he has been training since the start of the season anyway. 

[Jase 43,479]

15 minutes ago, King Kante said:

Lets be honest here, Cech is not GK4. If this was the case and he is there only for injury emergencies i.e. two out of Kepa, Mendy and Willy going down, we could've registered him anyway due to the GK emergency rules.

Unless the Premier League have made adjustments to the emergency signing rule to cover for COVID-19 cases, that rule only applies if all the keepers are out injured at the same time. So, IF Mendy, Kepa and Caballero are all out due to the virus or isolation, then we can't sign any keeper as emergency and will have take someone up from the academy. 

[Milan 17,835]

He just said this -

Quote

There is this pandemic and you just never know. We hope there will be no need to play me, however, I am ready. If it comes down to me playing, I will be ready and I am sure I would be useful.

 

[Jase 43,479]

Technical director, translator...and fourth-choice goalkeeper: Petr Cech is Chelsea's man of many talents 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/10/21/technical-director-translator-fourth-choice-goalkeeper-petr/

The big goalkeeper news of Tuesday night should have been that Edouard Mendy had been passed fit to make his Champions League debut, but the moment Chelsea’s 25-man Premier League squad list dropped a couple of hours before kick-off there was only one subject on everybody’s lips.

Petr Cech’s inclusion had been kept a secret from the rest of the Chelsea squad, presumably so it did not cause a distraction before their opening Champions League group game against Sevilla.

But it is safe to assume Cech’s phone and the various WhatsApp groups he is a member of exploded with activity as former team-mates and colleagues, friends, business partners, fans and journalists scrambled to find out whether or not a mistake had been made.

It quickly became clear that Cech’s name had not been included in error and Chelsea released a statement to confirm that the 38-year-old has taken up a position as a “non-contract player” which effectively means he will combine his job as technical and performance advisor with being fourth-choice goalkeeper for the rest of the season.

In reality, Cech, who watched the Sevilla game from his usual place in the directors’ box, will only play again if Chelsea are hit by a coronavirus crisis but he will now continue to train on a regular basis with Mendy, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Willy Caballero - all of whom he can speak to in their native languages.

Cech is certainly a man of many talents who has proved before that he can successfully multitask. He managed to teach himself fluent Spanish in a single pre-season in which he also played in a major tournament for the Czech Republic.

His current language count is said to stand at seven, having, over the years, added English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and German to his native Czech, and it was in February that his German came in particular use as he and head coach Frank Lampard made a secret trip to meet with Timo Werner and the striker’s agent and family.

Cech helped to act as an interpreter for Lampard and Werner, and the player’s entourage were so impressed with the pair that he ignored interest from Liverpool and Manchester United to sign for Chelsea.

His legendary status at Stamford Bridge was an obvious attraction to owner Roman Abramovich and director Marina Granovskaia in their decision to take Cech back to the club, following his playing retirement at the end of the 2018/19 season, but his ability to successfully turn his hand to a variety of skills was perhaps even more important.

As a player, Cech won every domestic and European club trophy with Chelsea and still holds the record for the most Premier League clean sheets, having kept 202 shut-outs across his career for Chelsea and Arsenal. It may well be a record that is never broken and the achievement was made all the more impressive by the fact he bounced back from the career-threatening injury that meant he played from 2006 in a specially-designed helmet.

Cech’s attention to detail as a player was never better illustrated than in the 2012 Champions League success, when his meticulous preparation for the possibility of penalties paid dividends, as he saved an extra-time spot kick from Bayern Munich’s Arjen Robben before stopping two more in the shootout.

Together with learning languages while he was not training and winning silverware, Cech managed to combine his playing career with learning the drums and completing an MBA in business. Last May, he released a charity single with Queen drummer Roger Taylor and earlier this month his name appeared in the credits on the London Country album by Wills and the Willing.

Cech’s involvement was promoted on the band’s website, with a video of him drumming on the single ‘Iceberg’ and the promise of him being part of a live tour that had to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lampard has credited Cech with playing a key role in this summer’s transfer business that topped £200million and trusted his former team-mate to find the right goalkeeper, at the right price, to take over from Kepa.

It is deemed coincidental that, like Cech did in 2004, Mendy has joined Chelsea from Rennes and yet his connections with his former club can only have helped negotiations.

While moving into an office at Cobham since his return on the administrative side, Cech has displayed an eagerness to remain fit and physically active. It was in October last year that National Ice Hockey Division Two club Guildford Phoenix unveiled him as their new goalkeeper and it came as little surprise that Cech was named man of the match in his debut a few days later, in which he made two penalty shootout saves.

Cech’s return to Chelsea training over the summer was initially for him to keep fit and to try to help Kepa overcome his troubles while also working to provide the right environment for Mendy to join and quickly settle in.

But, as publicly referenced by Lampard, it quickly became apparent that Cech could still be playing at the highest level if he wanted to and when there was a spot left over in Chelsea’s 25-man squad it made perfect sense to give it the club’s man of many talents.

[Tomo 21,684]

25 minutes ago, Jason said:

Unless the Premier League have made adjustments to the emergency signing rule to cover for COVID-19 cases, that rule only applies if all the keepers are out injured at the same time. So, IF Mendy, Kepa and Caballero are all out due to the virus or isolation, then we can't sign any keeper as emergency and will have take someone up from the academy. 

If we're down to 1 senior keeper we'd be allowed to register a new one outside the window, we did with Hedman (2006) and also Amelia (2015). If that was allowed in normal times i can't for the life of me see why it wouldn't be now.

Which makes me think Cech is genuinely being registered as a back up, if not now then next time Kepa/Willy fuck up.

[Jase 43,479]

15 minutes ago, Tomo said:

If we're down to 1 senior keeper we'd be allowed to register a new one outside the window, we did with Hedman (2006) and also Amelia (2015). If that was allowed in normal times i can't for the life of me se why it wouldn't be now.

Which makes me think Cech is genuinely being registered as a back up.

Yes but have the Premier League made adjustments to the rules? Because AFAIK, clubs can only sign an emergency keeper if all the keepers are out due to injury. Nothing has been said whether clubs can do that due to the COVID-19 cases, which is what the club have stated in regards to registering Cech.

In any case, too lazy to sit here and debate whether Cech is the actual back-up or just the emergency cover. At least we don't lose anything from the situation.

As for the two names you mentioned, we signed Hedman because of the head injury to Cech back then and Mourinho wanted a cover to Cudicini and Hilario - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/6145372.stm while we signed Amelia because Begovic was the only experienced backup to Courtois back in 2015 - https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/10021333/chelsea-agree-to-sign-former-ac-milan-keeper-amelia - after Courtois got injured.

[Superblue 6,331]

This decision has to be viewed as basic as this -

If Mendy went down long term with an injury, who would people rather see or feel more secure with in goal - Kepa, Caballero or Cech?

Unfortunately that's where we're at now with Kepa because based on those options until I see anything that suggests an alarming decline since his Arsenal days, Cech would be my choice.

 

[Alabama 1,992]

With Willy and Kepa...it would always end in tears...

[OneMoSalah 8,616]

On 21/10/2020 at 0:16 PM, Jason said:

Yes but have the Premier League made adjustments to the rules? Because AFAIK, clubs can only sign an emergency keeper if all the keepers are out due to injury. Nothing has been said whether clubs can do that due to the COVID-19 cases, which is what the club have stated in regards to registering Cech.

In any case, too lazy to sit here and debate whether Cech is the actual back-up or just the emergency cover. At least we don't lose anything from the situation.

As for the two names you mentioned, we signed Hedman because of the head injury to Cech back then and Mourinho wanted a cover to Cudicini and Hilario - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/6145372.stm while we signed Amelia because Begovic was the only experienced backup to Courtois back in 2015 - https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/10021333/chelsea-agree-to-sign-former-ac-milan-keeper-amelia - after Courtois got injured.

Surely they’d treat COVID the exact same way? You would have thought so. It would look incredibly stupid if they did it for injury and not COVID right now.

Although chances of losing 2 or more GKs at once due to this is still slim for me. 

Regardless of what Frank and Petr has said, still think he will be number 2. As they said hopefully he wont play but doesn’t mean he cant sit on the bench. 

Club gonna try get Kepa out in January I reckon. 

[Jase 43,479]

19 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Surely they’d treat COVID the exact same way? You would have thought so. It would look incredibly stupid if they did it for injury and not COVID right now.

Although chances of losing 2 or more GKs at once due to this is still slim for me. 

Regardless of what Frank and Petr has said, still think he will be number 2. As they said hopefully he wont play but doesn’t mean he cant sit on the bench. 

Club gonna try get Kepa out in January I reckon. 

I don't think we'll see Cech in the matchday squad if the other 3 keepers are available. Putting Cech now as the #2 on the bench ahead of Kepa and Caballero would just create unnecessary drama.

[OneMoSalah 8,616]

9 minutes ago, Jason said:

I don't think we'll see Cech in the matchday squad if the other 3 keepers are available. Putting Cech now as the #2 on the bench ahead of Kepa and Caballero would just create unnecessary drama.

It would and I think we will see it.