Petr Cech spent 15 years at Chelsea, saving penalties as they won the Champions League final in 2012, winning the Premier League four times, and even speaking to fans protesting against the Super League in 2021.
Given his association with the club as both a player and a technical and performance advisor, few understand Chelsea better than him. But even he doesn’t recognise this new iteration of the west London club.
“It’s different,” he tells The Athletic. “Maybe if I were there on a daily basis, I would (recognise Chelsea). I would see it differently.
“From what you see from the outside, I don’t think you can compare because of the vision and the way that the club operates, how they want to do things. It’s completely different from how it (Chelsea) was. What you see now, what the club does, and obviously the personnel. A lot of things have changed. So it’s a completely different approach, different mentality.
“Chelsea will always be in my heart and I want them to do well, but it is a different club.”
It’s been four years since Cech left his role as Chelsea’s technical and performance advisor in the summer of 2022, shortly after Roman Abramovich, who had owned the club since before Cech’s arrival in 2004, sold it.
Following his retirement in 2019, Chelsea’s (and arguably the Premier League’s) best-ever goalkeeper worked behind the scenes of the club he holds so dear.
However, after the Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly-led consortium takeover of the club, Cech followed Bruce Buck and Marina Granovskaia in leaving.
Despite that departure and almost half a decade away from Stamford Bridge, Cech does not hide his adoration for Chelsea.
The 43-year-old empathises with the frustration of Chelsea fans at what has been a difficult and sometimes tumultuous campaign. Chelsea are eighth in the Premier League and into the FA Cup final, but two permanent head coaches — Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior — have left the club over the course of the season.
“The legacy of the club was winning trophies,” Cech says. “So if you take any Chelsea fan who started following the team over the last 15 years, all they’ve seen is success.
“When you have a period where you are not as successful and the positions in the league are not as good, then of course the fans will feel that. The fans will question that, and I think that’s exactly where the club is at the moment.”
Under BlueCo’s ownership, Chelsea have committed approximately £1.5billion ($2bn) on player transfer fees, with a clear focus on younger players.
The likes of Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo have proven to be the more successful examples of that transfer strategy, while others have struggled.
Cech has his doubts over the strategy. When asked about the focus on signing young players, Cech said: “You have to look at what you want to achieve. You can have young, talented players, and you can win, but it’s very rare that you manage to do that. If you concentrate on bringing young, talented players and make them better, that’s one thing, but if you are to win every season and compete every season, that does not go together.
“You have to change your philosophy. Certain things don’t go together because, in order to win a Champions League or a Premier League… these are really tough competitions, and you have to be consistent.
“You need to have a strong core of the team. And then you can bring young, talented players who will grow faster and then will be held by the experienced players to help navigate them through difficult times when they come.
“When the majority of your squad is young and doesn’t have experience with going through difficult times, they almost look at each other thinking, ‘OK, who’s going to help me?’ It might be difficult for them. You need to realise what stage you are in, and what is needed.”
Cech also believes Chelsea’s goalkeepers have struggled because of the situation around them.
It can be argued that since the departures of Cech in 2015 and Thibaut Courtois in 2018, Chelsea have not been able to replace the pair. Edouard Mendy came closest to reaching the heights of his predecessors before his eventual drop in form and departure in the summer of 2023.
Goalkeepers Gabriel Slonina, Robert Sanchez, Djordje Petrovic, Filip Jorgensen, and Mike Penders have all been signed under BlueCo’s ownership. Sanchez has staked the biggest claim to be Chelsea’s No 1, but the Spain international has not been without high-profile mistakes and was dropped from the starting line-up in March.
Jorgensen (left) and Sanchez have both been given chances to stake their claim as Chelsea’s No 1 (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
“The goalkeepers are not being helped by the overall situation,” Cech said. “As a goalkeeper, if your team is struggling, then you have a bit of a problem yourself too because you’re exposed and there is a lot of pressure on you. That can affect your performance because, as a goalkeeper, you rely on teamwork and the help of the people around you or the system around you.
“Rob (Sanchez), you can see, he’s got a huge, huge potential, and there are games where you see it. You see his ability, his shot-stopping ability, and the saves he can produce at times. But there are things for him to work on as well, like his consistency. He has games where he obviously makes wrong decisions, and as a goalkeeper, you know, these decisions are really visible.
“The situation with Filip Jorgensen is an interesting one because every time he got a chance to come into the team a few times, he got injured and things did not happen as well for him as he would have liked.
“Based on their abilities, I’m not surprised Chelsea brought them in, but I don’t think the team has managed to get the most out of them.”
Cech did not only have opinions on Chelsea’s current crop of shot stoppers, but also on the modern style of goalkeeping. The former Czech Republic international began his career in 1998, and during his 21-year playing career, he witnessed firsthand how the demands on goalkeepers changed.
Clubs now want goalkeepers to be able to play out from the back and be comfortable on the ball. Towards the latter stages of his career, Cech faced criticism on that front, and in the summer of 2018, while playing for Arsenal under Unai Emery, he insisted that he was comfortable adapting to the new requirements.
“I didn’t mind it,” he said. “If you want to build up from the back, it depends on how well a team cooperates. You have to know where the space is and where your options are.
Cech won the Champions League with Chelsea (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
“When done right, it is obviously a big help, and you can see, you know, with Mikel (Arteta) or with (Pep) Guardiola teams who are good at the build-up, the role of the goalkeeper is much easier because they have options and they can use them much better. Sometimes you see ’keepers who play from the back, but their options are very limited, and the goalkeeper then has to dribble and find all the solutions inside his own box because there is no other solution. So then it becomes complicated.
“I’m not a fan of that because at the end of the day, building them from the back is for you to create chances, create space, and to create an advantage, not to put yourself under pressure. You see the teams that overuse it, and they don’t do it as well. But I never minded. The more touches you have is more fun for you as well. You’re playing, and you’re more involved, rather than just watching.”
However, there is no confusion in what Cech believes is the biggest contribution a goalkeeper can make to a team and references Manchester City’s Gianluigi Donnarumma’s performance during the 2-1 victory over Arsenal on April 19 to emphasise his point: “At the end of the day, you will win the game if a goalkeeper makes saves. It’s important to be able to do what your manager asks, but you will never win on passes in the box. You will always win if the goalkeeper makes important saves. That is what makes the difference.
“Donnarumma was not particularly good with his feet in the game. He gave away the goal, but then he made two important saves for Arsenal to lose the game. In the end, the save is more important. Overall, you need your goalkeeper to be a goalkeeper. If you look at David Raya, he’s brilliant with his feet, but he makes the important saves too.”
