by Nia Griffiths
Chelsea’s ex-assistant manager has spoken out (again) about what he makes of Petr Cech’s potential transfer to Arsenal.
It’s turns out, he’s pretty surprised.
We reported before on Ray Wilkins’ belief that Chelsea wouldn’t sell to a rival and would be offloading Cech to another club, possibly in Europe. To be fair, I think most of us thought the same thing until very, very recently.
Now he’s had to put his hands up and admit he was wrong. In fact, he’s actually pretty shocked that Chelsea have allowed this to happen.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said, “I’m extremely surprised and I thought Chelsea might have offloaded him into Europe somewhere.”
Wilkins was full of praise for the goalkeeper, just like everyone who seems to have worked with him or been connected to him.
“He’s been a fantastic servant for the club and the service he’s given the club has been unbelievable,” he said.
“He’s a magnificent character – as a bloke he’s first class and we know he’s a magnificent goalkeeper. Since the unfortunate injury he got he’s maybe dropped five per cent but he’s still world class.
“He’s very calm and his concentration levels are 100 per cent. The way Arsenal play, they keep the ball for long periods but when called upon the concentration levels have to be spot on, which they are with him.”
On how he believes the Czech international will do at Arsenal, he admitted, “I think [Chelsea have] done him a favour. Whether they’ve done themselves a favour is another question because with Petr going to Arsenal it reinforces their ability to be contenders for the Premier League title.
“I’m slightly surprised Chelsea have allowed him to go to another Premier League club.”
Later adding, “I think Petr will give a great deal to Arsenal and it’s Chelsea’s loss. I’m pleased we’ll get to see him in the Premier League week in, week out now.”
Finally he revealed, “[£10.9m] is absolutely a bargain. Bearing in mind he never played last year, so in football terms he’s 32, not 33. He’s got eight years left at the top level.
“‘The final thing with goalkeepers is ‘are you still prepared to get hurt?’ The day you aren’t prepared to be hurt is the day you retire.”
As someone who knows Cech and Chelsea well, for him to be surprised that he’s been sold to us is oddly disconcerting. No one thought Jose Mourinho would sell such a huge player to us and it makes me suspicious. It’ll be interesting, if this does all go ahead, to see what the Blues manager says about the transfer.