by Nia Griffiths

Although we already had an inkling that the Petr Cech deal had far more to do with Roman Abramovich than Jose Mourinho, the manager’s recent quotes about the transfer appear to confirm it.

Talking about the deal, the Blues’ boss said, “Petr has been a great servant for Chelsea for 11 years and helped this club to win almost everything there is to win,”

He continued, “I always said I wanted him to stay but I understand Petr needed to move on to play first team football every week. Sometimes you have to respect the wishes of someone who has earned so much respect with his service and actions for your club.

“I support the owner’s decision to honour the player in this way. It is very rare in football to make a decision like this and for that reason I am proud of my club for making it. There are not many clubs in the world big enough to be able to make that decision.

He added finally, “Petr’s success at this club will always to be remembered and we thank him for everything he did.”

The quotes don’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know. The goalkeeper left for first team football, which he’s likely to get at Arsenal, and Mourinho wasn’t keen on letting him go, especially to rivals.

Even back in May, the Portuguese manager was hinting that although Cech might leave, it wasn’t his decision and it would be ultimately down to the Chelsea owner to make the final shout.

It goes to show that top dog at Chelsea is definitely still Abramovich and, despite Mourinho being held is such high regard, he’s still not got a whole lot of say about certain situations. It’ll be interesting to see if this transfer has repercussions for the two men, personal or professional.