by Lee Hurley

With the players returning for pre-season, it’s getting very close to the time when we get to watch the team on the pitch again.

After a very quiet summer, Arsenal’s only new arrival so far, Petr Cech, has been speaking to the press in his home country and has revealed he doesn’t care if he gets the number one shirt (the shirt, not the position), speaks about Tomas Rosicky not getting game time, leaving Chelsea and how there will be no compassion for the other keepers at Arsenal.

It’s been translated via Google translate which has made an absolute balls of the whole thing if we’re honest. We’ve tidied it up where we can. Some bits are beyond saving.

First up, Cech was asked if he ever thinks about how football can be cruel. He replied “Cruel? It’s more relentless. Especially at the highest level when you have to defend your position every week. Sometimes things happen, it does not work out.

“The coach chooses and you day by day you may find yourself on the sidelines without doing anything wrong. Football is a struggle and you never know what surprises are hidden around the corner.”

So how does he deal with that?

“Train as best you can, and when you get a chance, play hard, whether you show up. I maintained it throughout the season, every match I showed that I can play, but my colleague [Courtois] did the same and there was no reason to change anything.

“Meanwhile, I realised that I had to go because it is not yet time to sit on the bench and was glad that I’m in a big club where everyone behaves towards me with respect. Without that, I would not be at Arsenal.”

Cech was then asked if he was afraid he would end up like Tomas Rosicky, and struggle for game time at Arsenal “Nothing is certain. It’s up to me how everything turns out.

“When a coach thinks he does not like how I play, so he pulls me. I never ask if I start as one, two, or three. I go into every training session with the coach to prove that he had no choice but to plunge me into the goal.

“It is the role of the individual in a team sport , but you must always put the team in first place, not your ego. Even if you’re not playing, you have to find a way to help the team.

“I had to go [from Chelsea]. First, to overcome disappointments and then do everything to reverse the situation.

“I was always ready for the moment when Mourinho will come and say you’re playing tomorrow! Unfortunately, it wasn’t often said, so it was a moment that I solved it myself.

“But before he could leave for matches with only sixteen players, it used to be worse. It was twenty-five and nine boys had to stay at home.

“In Sheffield United because they excluded from nominations a second goalkeeper, I remember as a duo rode defender Phil Jagielka and one had even into the goal.”

The question then came up about his competitors at Arsenal, Wojciech Szczesny and David Ospina “In this question, unfortunately there is no place for compassion.

“Either you play or you’re toast.

“But of course I was about boys in Chelsea and often wondered: Do the damn hard when Makai every day are as good as me [Google translate wobble, any suggestions?], but instead there is only room for one. The Coach selects and it’s done.”

He also added that he doesn’t care what number he gets, that Arsenal will assign one to him at their discretion and he’s happy to take a number that’s free.

Speaking about his last season at Chelsea, he added when asked if he knew his time was up with the arrival of Courtois “No, but one did not have to be a genius to realise that Thibaut gets a chance first.

“I do not want to be unnecessarily hasty with the final decision. Some people would have felt jilted. I’ve heard stories of goalkeepers who fall among the replacements. And I, this is my Chelsea and that never happened. None of my colleagues threw sticks under my feet and tried to poison my training.

“I did the same thing last year.”