Arsenal have been repeatedly linked with Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech for the last few months, as stories about Arsene Wenger’s uncertainty over Wojciech Szczesny and David Ospina abound.
For his part Cech has said he hopes that his current club will allow him the move he wants, and if certain sections of the press are to believed he wants to stay in London, thus making Arsenal the natural option.
Via our friends at Sport Witness come some quotes from his international teammate Tomas Rosicky who had a bit to say about his own situation earlier today. However, it’s reasonable to assume that he’s got some insight on what’s going on but, rather sensibly, he’s staying out of it lest things not turn out the way people might want.
“I know about some things from both sides but I will not interfere,” he said. “It could even turn against me. Both sides know what they are doing. Arsenal is a top world team.
“Players want to be transferred there, that is nothing new, it is a fantastic club.”
It makes it sound as if something’s going on, but obviously don’t know what just yet. And Cech himself spoke today to the press in him home country, saying, “Next week we will have a meeting with Chelsea. At the moment it is with my agent. When it is clearer and all the cards are on the table, we will decide.
“I believe that for what I have done for the club and what the club has done for me, we can arrange it so we are all happy.
“I keep all options open, regardless of the country. I will decide based on what is best for me and my family. It does not matter whether it is England, Germany, France or Spain.”
Anyway, while we wait, vote in the poll below:
Im not sure Cech really improves on Scz. I would rather we gave our academy product (well sort of) more time and I have a feeling Wenger doesn’t consider a new goalkeeper a priority. He certainly wont buy before he sells. Also don’t forget Wenger has high hopes for Martinez as well!
I am also pretty sure Chelshit would never sell us a player that could potentially improve us.
like cech said it depends on him were he will move, chelshit already agreed that he will decide on his future and I also read that he doesn’t want to move out of London because of his family and his children going to school, the only thing that will block cech coming to arsenal is wenger, if he want to bring another GK it’s a done deal, if not cech will move elsewhere, maybe to utd. and become another van der sar.
Well all the talk is that Mourinho would let him choose where he wants to go, he feels he owes him or something. Mourinho “feeling” something, I know it’s weird, right?!
It has nothing to with Mourinho
. Cech is one of the old boys who deals with Abramovic directly and word on the street is, Abramovic is happy to allow him to go where he wants due to him being a loyal servant to the club for as long as he has.
I think it’s a case of if we want him, we’ll get him. Question is, do we want him? We’ll know soon enough.
teams dont win the top trophy,s without a top keeper and he,s a TOP keeper.
get him in.
It would be a victory over the trolls (creatures) in some ways.
I share your skepticism. And then of course, beyond the issue of willingness to sell at all, there’s the question of price. Chelsea will try to hold us over a barrel on this one.
Cech is far ahead of scz at the moment…anyone who thinks otherwise needs to get their brains checked. Signing him would def boost the moral of the team especially our defense.
Everyone looking for/ demanding new things, even if it’s used vintage Arsene has no reason to buy Cech You all demand World Class yet Jose Mu discarded Cech for a younger more stable goalkeeper for a reason. Why should Arsenal buy second hand goods sold by Chelsea Arsenal have the money There are better younger goalkeepers in Germany who will surpass Cech quality in a year. That’s if Arsene want to buy a goalkeeper Another note: Arsene is loyal. By now all you YES voters above should know he’s not the type of manager who’d buy one year and replace… Read more »
This is no-brainer. Bring him in!
How many no-brainers have we had in the last two summers? Some said Song was, Vela too… Blah.
I would like to have Cech in our goal though. He’s currently better than our current keepers, who are in fact good keepers.
Anyone that said that getting Song was a ”no brainer” is a no brainer.
Cech on the other hand really is a no brainer. If he is available for cheap 10m then we really should go for him
I really hope we get him. It’s a mentality thing for me. With Szczesny in goal, I’m sure strikers are thinking they’ve got a good chance cos he hasn’t got the same reputation as Cech. Whereas with Cech in goal, they’ll be thinking it won’t be so easy beatin this guy to score. With his experience and calmness in goal, we’ll improve massively.
bro are u mad ? cech is a world class GK and has minimum 4 years to play top level, remember van der sar playing for fulham every one were saying he was past it and at age of 35 fergie took him and he was brilliant for them for 4 years, if we sign cech i think he will be up there with seaman and lehman, and i hope szcz can be patient and learn from cech he is still very much young he can become top class keepr too.
Im not saying Cech is not a great keeper, I just think that once szc is already as good as him and will only get better.
*now not once sorry
szcz is still very young for GK and that is why he is making mistakes, and if we have someone like chech in our side to mentor him and show how to improve hiss game while being patient i’m sure in 2-3 years he will become no.1 again and much improved.
I won’t have an issue with Cech coming in, but I am on the side that does not see improving our goalkeeping as the key to us winning the title. If he does come in, hopefully we can keep Szcz still. I’d really hate to see him go. He’s got the potential, and it will be known if he reaches it within 2 to 3 years from now. Having him leave now would be similar to Wenger’s comments on losing Walcott’s golden years after having him around for so long
It’s similar to Debuchy being the mentor to Bellerin, if Cech can come in and help Szcz be the top player he can be, it will be worth it. Arsene knows.
Minimum four years? Based on what? What about his play indicates he has four years left of being very good, potentially world class? It’s certainly a myth that keepers sustain their quality past 34/35. The three best keepers in the world are under 30 (Courtois 23, De Gea 24 and Neuer 29). Look at Casillas, or even Cech circa 2012/13: the errors began creeping into his game notably. Even Buffon who, while he is still solid, is a shadow of his former self (I know at his age this point is a stretch, but it’s a valid point in my… Read more »
^^^ This. There’s a reason Cech can’t get a minute with Chel$ki, and it’s not just that he’s behind one of the best three keepers in the world. No, the reason they started picking Courteois over Cech in the first place is because Cech just doesn’t have it any more. As Chris said, we should not be signing an aging former star in the hopes he hasn’t regressed any further than he already has.
if Cech would still be that good he would play instead of Courtois. I don’t even consider Courtois world class but it seems to be good enough to keep Cech out of the team. And that has nothing to do with the age as Mourinho plays John C*nt every week regardless the fact he’s fu**in’ 48.
So are you saying you wouldn’t want Courtois if Cech was still starting for them?
I would rather have Courtois than Cech because he is already better now and will improve in the coming years. But I don’t think we need a new keeper. I think Szczesny has the potential to become a top class keeper and Ospina is more than a solid back up. I can’t imagine Wenger selling Ospina after 1 season in which he made him no 1 so Cech coming in would mean Szczesny out. And maybe it’s a bit sentimentality but I would hate to see him leave the club.
Courtois was probably the biggest reason Athletico Madrid managed to challenge the Mega clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid last year and even get away with the title, aswell as making it to the Champions league final. Courtois is a extreme keeper talent considering his age and will only be better next year now that he has one Premier League season under his belt and know what to expect. I just wish we had scouted him first. However I have been making the argument for years that Szczesny is the kind of person who would greatly benefit from having an older… Read more »
The only way I would take Cech is as a goalkeeper coach – not to actually play goal. He’s a shadow of his former self. The reason Chel$ki started using Courteois over Cech in the first place is that Cech simply wasn’t good enough anymore. However, I’ll grant that with his experience he could possibly coach Szczesny to the next level.
Courtois is not world class??…carry on.
No he’s not WC.
He’s fortunate to have JT in front of him
There’s only 5 WC Keepers , every else is great , excellent good and average
You must be having a laugh.
What about when he was at atletico??
His age may or may not be a drawback, but at the very least he could be a great mentor for Szcz, who I still hope is the long-term option. Working with Cech might be exactly what he needs to get to the next level.
I’d prefer Lloris. He’ll end up at Man U though.
i do agree on the second part, Crap players do tend to end up at UTD
Lloris is in the top 3-5 keepers in the league. FACT.
Stop saying “FACT” all the time, it just makes you sound like an idiot. You’ve got a perfectly valid point, you don’t need to tart it up like a Mirror headline.
Well you can bang your head on the wall as hard as you can if it annoys you so much.
Or you can simply ignore my comments and read the less “idiotic” ones….either ways I could care less “genius”.
You don’t think Cech is an improvement on Szcznesy?
He’s one of the best goalkeepers of the past decade in world football, and hardly past it at this point. If we have any chance to sign him we absolutely should.
I agree, we should absolutely sign him if we can. The question is what happens to the other GKs we have? One of them is obviously going to want to leave. You can’t keep 3 full internationals happy with 1 squad place (one that doesn’t lend itself to rotation either). I would hate to see Szcz leave and realize his large potential somewhere else.
my tought is that if we sign cech i’m sure wenger will say every one of them will be fighting for no.1, but if cech start in arsenal colors flying then i wood say szcz and opsina will be fighting for no.2 spot for this season and after this one one of them will leave, as much as i like opsina szcz has a great potential to become top class and has the build and height for the premier league and he is at arsenal from age of 17, but also depends who proves to be more loyal to the… Read more »
and martinez going to loan
Read somewhere that Martinez’s contract is expiring on June 30th. Any truth to this?
Perhaps I have over rated scz. People seem to have forgotten they both shared the golden glove last year and considering chelsea’s back 4 was/is better than ours (not by much) that’s a better achievement for scz than for cech.
mingolet was one clean sheet shy from wining the the golden glove, and he is average GK making mistakes every other match fabianski is better than him and he was also running for golden glove, so you can see what i’m talking about.
That shit Moureen wont want Cech to play for us. He will double the price just to see us not get him. Luckily we ain’t desperate.
My best friend is a Chelsea fan and he doesn’t want to sell Cech to Arsenal. Cech is up there with Buffon as the greatest goalie of the 21st century (so far). He still has at least 2-3 years left at the very top. Would be an excellent signing for us. One of the only genuinely nice guys on the whole Chelsea squad and a proven winner.
Your best friend is a Chelsea fan?
Yes. We were just young kids and he supported Chelsea before i even liked football. I picked Arsenal because I liked the name, the crest, the shirts. Had no idea about who any footballers were in the whole world except for 2-3, didn’t know anyone on Arsenal. He hasn’t been too much of a cunt to me these past few years.
who is 2-3?
Haha, I knew Ronaldo, Zidane, and Ronaldhinho. And Mia Hamm (I live in USA)
2-3 would be Moronho’s IQ.
4-5!
Hi have a question, if Cech comes in, does that mean Szcz is going out on loan? Or are we putting Ospina in the bin after one good season?
Cech will impove us marginally but to be serious we need world class centre back. Love Per but if we want to go up a gear next season he will need to be replaced.
Gabriel would be my pick to eventually usurpe Per, not quite yet though he needs time to settle.
Gabriel usurping Per. It’d be like having two Laurent Koscielny’s on the pitch.
As much as I love Per I think this would form the meanest central defence in Europe.
If arseblog/newshound reads this, please do a poll on who people would prefer as our number come next season from Scz, Ospina, Cech and anyone else we may be interested in (people keep mentioning Casillas but he is definitely past it from the little i have seen of him since 2014.
unless he ends up at the Saracens…
Let’s not forget Jens Lehmann joined Arsenal at age 33 and went on to have four world class seasons for the club. He replaced David Seaman who by that point was 38 or 39.
It’s fantasy to suggest we will sign Cech. That odious cunt Mourinho will never sell to us. Let’s not waste time with baseless rumors.
Hardly baseless. especially when Tomas says he knows whats going on with both sides. It does seem like somethings going on.
But I agree Mourinho will do everything in his power to try and make this not happen
What the hell is all this fuss about a 33 year old keeper with a stupid hat?! Szhez will be a year older, wiser and better next season….he’s our man.
The poll needs a third option of “someone other than those 3”.
Just out of interest, can you name a GK – we realistically have a chance of landing – who would be better than Cech or the two keepers we currently have? All the better alternatives seem to be spoken for.
Yann Sommer
Option 3: South Park.
Both Schzesny and Ospina are good goalkeepers but not at the same level as Cech, Lloris, Hart or De gea. I don’t think we had a world class goalie since Lehman. This is the area we can definitely improve on and I think Wenger will go out a buy one.
everybody is entitle to his or her own opinion. Regardless of what ever thing Wenger is thinking right now please ensure that signing cech is one of them.
If Cech in, Ospina and Szec can’t both stay.
And we need quality DM cover and up front Sergio Aguero or someone of that ilk unless Theo is the fabled 30-goal a season man?
Equals forget Cech and spend 100m quid to win league on 2 players? Unload everyone we don’t need like Pod, Rosicky, Falm, /diaby, Campbell, Yoyo, loan Martinez, keep ‘gnarbry … loan Jenko, etc to cover the cost ….. easy peasy lemon squeezy ….Hmmmm
Let’s do a player swap with em.
That went well last time.
I’m genuinely surprised by how many people would rather bring in Cech than stick with Ospina/Sczesney. Sczesney has become a top quality goalkeeper – and more importantly is very much an Arsenal boy. Bringing in Ospina was a great move to give him a kick up the arse and make him realise he has to keep working hard everyday if he wants to be our number one. I’d rather a man between the sticks with a passion for the club than a Chelsea man. Not that any of us can predict Wenger – but here’s another couple of points. If… Read more »
Everyone bleeds red, not good enough reason to keep szczesny.
Moronho bleeds a sort of yellowish green pus. Terry bleeds vaginal lubricant.
im dead. what a comment.
only arsenal fans believe szcz has the potential to be a world class keeper. when’s the last time a top club made a run at him in the transfer market. szcz responded to competition (ospina) by putting together some of his worst performances in an arsenal shirt. and some of you want more of that? please. he should be finished at arsenal. he’s been benched 2 of the last 3 seasons. pretty sure his numerous red cards have earned him a reputation so he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt from the officials. caught smoking again = no… Read more »
Am I missing something here? I thought Arsene said he would not sign a GK since he has 3 world class GKs already. or did I dream all of that?
And we all know how Arsene is always unerringly transparent about his transfer dealings
Not much going on then…
Personally, I’d be in favor of bringing in Cech and using him to mentor Szczesny & Martinez as well as serve as No.1 GK in the short term. As it stands Szczesny just isn’t reliable enough to support a title challenge. He lost his place to Ospina for a reason (though I don’t get the sense that Wenger sees Ospina as a long term solution). If it came down to a choice, I’d even be willing to see Szczesny leave in order to get Cech. What is clear is that nothing will happen soon. Wenger never moves fast in the… Read more »
Our goalkeeping situation needed a Cech since Jense left.
So painful to see such little faith shown to our goalkeeping duo by our own fans.. As much as you’d like to think, our problem last season was not buying a CB early enough, never saw the gk dept as the main problem.. We have two great goalies pushing themselves really hard in training and all we want is just to bring in Cech, no why not get Superman and keep 38 cleansheets..
Glad we have Wenger and not some coach who always wants new toys
“It makes it sound as if something’s going on, but obviously don’t know what just yet. ” – maybe discussing cookery lessons?!
Can fans stop buying into the media narratives. seriously do we need another gk. which will make 3 internationals fighting for one spot! crazy situation. Ospinna is so underrated by medias and fans alike. First season , he was solid , calm and did very well. He is young also (25 -26 ), has international experience (WC and Copa America coming up) . I don’t see Wenger getting rid of him after one season. And as for the Pole , he still has faith him. So Cech should have said Yes to Wenger ten years ago when he really wanted… Read more »
I think if Czech comes in its obvious AW doesn’t see our current keepers as the future. Is scz that good? everyone on here seems to believe he is I’ve never honestly seen him put in really convincing spell. Bring Cech in an it only does our current keepers harm they surely won’t stay and figh. So the gamble in my opinion is get cech hope he is great for a season or two and lose our current lads hoping to replace them with fresher better keepers. Or just stick with what we have and hope they become what we… Read more »
Let us be sincere with ourselves, how many times has scesz stayed on top of his game for 38 matches without losing his place. But in cech’s case I barely know cheski second keeper. this guy has always being solid season after season. what wins the league is consistency not a run of good games mixed with silly and costly errors.
Umm … Cech IS Chel$ki’s second keeper … and it’s for a good reason …
This whole thig has a bit of a Jennings feel about it to me.
He might very well be interested in coming here but at the end of the day it is the manager’s decision and with Mr. Wenger you never know. I genuinely expect a summer with very few signings if we will make any at all that is. I do however think that we should get rid off: Flamini, Podolski, Sanogo and Campbell. Sanogo is a must-go elsewhere as he has proven that he is not good enough for premier league never mind arsenal… 1 goal in 11 appearances is not good at all..
Have to day with Lloris talking about NOT talking about leaving Spurs for champions league footy, I wouldn’t mind Wenger persuading him to pop across London – just to really rub salt in the Spuds wounds.
Szczesny has, in my view, had too many chances. It is time that Arsenal put their faith in an experienced, calm head in goal who has the talent and the personality to impose themselves. The one issue I have with Cech is that he comes from a culture where, if things start getting difficult, the senior players rebel against the manager. He was part of that Chelsea core along with Terry, Drogba, Ballack and Lampard who pressured Abramovich into forcing out the likes of Scolari and Villas-Boas, just by throwing a bit of a strop. There’s obviously no danger of… Read more »
the real questions are
1. if sczc and ospina will check our progress
2.if cech checks all the right boxes for us as a club
3.the amount on the cheque for cech.
Lloris and De Gea are better EPL goalkeepers that Courtois
Both of these keepers saved their team 12/15 points last season
John Terry back four (excellent at defending) saved Jose Mu 12/15 points last season.
Courtois was man of match only once last season