After 11 successful years spent in Chelsea blue, with the transfer window now officially open, Petr Cech is an Arsenal player. Jose Mourinho and Petr Cech sat down to discuss the move the on the Chelsea FC official website.
It was always very apparent that Mourinho would have preferred the Czech shot-stopper to stay with the Blues. However being the true gentleman he is, he supports the decision and has expressed his appreciation for everything Cech has done for the club with that today being confirmed in the following interview.
‘Petr has been a great servant for Chelsea for 11 years and helped this club to win almost everything there is to win,’ praised Mourinho.
‘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.’
‘Petr’s success at this club will always to be remembered and we thank him for everything he did.’
It’s very clear there’s a huge mutual respect between the pair, with Mourinho being the man to hand Cech his debut in the Premier League and a key factor in the development and career of the 6 foot 5 inch goalkeeper. Cech has described the relationship between the two and also expressing a key reason behind his move was in fact due to wise advice given by the Portuguese tactician.
Cech added: ‘He (Mourinho) had to make his decision at the start of last season, I had to make my decision at the start of this season but I will always keep the best regards for him because I believe that we had so much success and so much respect for each other.
He is one of the best managers in the world. Now, we will be opponents but it will not change our relationship, I believe.
I learned a lot from him and one of those things was that if you have to make a hard decision, you need to make sure that you do it if you believe it is the right choice.’
