Last night news broke that Petr Cech would be heading back to Chelsea this summer to take up a new position as a ‘sporting director’.
The timing of it raised eyebrows, and it feels very much like something that has been leaked from Stamford Bridge ahead the Europa League final as it’s widely expected that the 37 year old will start in goal for the Gunners.
It added another layer of distraction for Unai Emery and his team, following the Henrikh Mkhitaryan situation, the difficulties of fans getting to Baku and everything else.
However, in response, Cech made it very clear that his only focus right now is on winning that game next Wednesday, and ending his career with a trophy and a medal.
He Tweeted:
Despite the news today as I had already said to everybody before , I’ll make decision about my future after the last game . Now my sole focus is to win the EL with @Arsenal .
— Petr Cech (@PetrCech) May 21, 2019
“Despite the news today as I had already said to everybody before , I’ll make decision about my future after the last game. Now my sole focus is to win the EL with @Arsenal .”
I don’t think anyone is in any doubt as to Cech’s professionalism, and regardless of what his future holds he’ll be out to win against Chelsea.
The question for Emery is whether he considers this leak a distraction, and whether or not in a final which has huge importance for the club, he should play what is ostensibly his second choice keeper.
I consider Cech a very professional footballer, however, this is our best shot to a major trophy in over a decade, we can’t afford to gamble with it. I think the leak was strategic, Leno should start for me..
He won’t want to leave Arsenal and end his playing career with a bad match, could prove a good motivation for him to succeed.
Exactly, Cech will be awesome come the final.
We have too many fans who overthink catastrophic outcomes and are still hurting from the years of Alumina and Fabianski…
Maybe but too risky. Leno is our first choice so we should play him.
I imagine there will be a lot of comments with words like ‘sentiment’ or ‘ruthlessness’ but for me personally, it would leave a bit of a bad taste in the mouth if Cech didn’t start the final.
Are you a Chelsea fan?Cech SHOULD NOT PLAY!
Of course Cech should play. He has been superb in all his previous matches and must be allowed to have the chance to win a final trophy after a great career
“Are you a Chelsea fan?” Weird and unnecessary comment!
Why? He isn’t our best Keeper. We need to play the best team available for our biggest game in years. Win this game and our rebuild can begin. Lose and we are set back another 3 years while our rivals push on.
Football is a ruthless business from Youth level to Senior. Cech is aware of this. The whole Cup Keeper situation is farcical. One position where a player doesn’t need to be rested is in goal!
To be honest if the difference between us winning the trophy is about who is in goal, I doubt we’ll be winning the trophy
I’m not sure whether you’re being facetious, naive or just stupid? The Goalkeeper is one of the most vital positions in the team. Ask Liverpool fans after last year’s Champions League Final whether they share the same opinion as you.
How so?
It’s a team game, everyone is important. Goal keepers role is recognized even more now. Hence, 2 GKs in the league costs individually more than our current rumoured transfer budget. We’ll be facing one of them in the final!
Get it to Cech from the Czech Republic. End of story
This is clearly leaked by Chelsea with the intention of disrupting Arsenal’s preparations for the final. So fuck them…drop Cech. They can deal with the player when he turns to them after losing his place in a European final.
Forget all this…. We should boycott this final! Mkhitaryan not playing is an absolute disgrace! Only then will the fucking UEFA learn a fucking lesson!!!!
If we boycott, the only losers will be Arsenal: the players, the fans and our rebuilding plans. UEFA won’t give a fuck either way mate (and neither will Chelsea).
I agree, it would only work if Chelsea joined us in the boycott.
We don’t have any leverage as we need to win this game desperately.
I’m more upset about the difficulties for travelling fans rather than the abscence of Mkhitaryan. It’s a shit position and UEFA are corrupt, but At the end of the day he’s not crucial to the success of the game.
If it was Auba/Laca on the other hand, who knows what we would of done :/
That’s the thing. Values should always come before everything else, especially in case of us, who take such pride in abiding by our values.
And Its ok because it’s just Mkhi? How sad. What if it was Messi? Would UEFA have gone ahead with this venue? Absolutely not. The uproar then would have been enormous and would have cost them serious PR damage and indirectly, revenue. But just because it’s Mkhi, that’s ok?
What is the maximum that can happen to us of we boycott? It will cost 50-60m in revenue right? Out values are much more important than that.
We would probably be fined a very large amount of money, be expelled from all competitions for at least five years and generally be hung out to dry. All this talk of boycotting the final is nonsense, it’s a horrible situation but it is what it is.
Of course we will be at a great loss by boycotting the final.. but at least that will make UEFA take notice. Or else this will happen again!
Why even think of boycott the match? Because of one player who is average? People should know that politics rule out lives. I dont even understand why the noise about one player who may not even play?
Sounds like the boycott is on. Weve sold 3 thousand tickets and the chavs have sold 6 hundred . Haha
It should motivate Cech to prove he’s still an Arsenal player. He won’t want to make any obvious errors as it won’t reflect well on him, so hopefully he’ll play out of his skin. I pray it doesn’t come to a penalty shootout though ?
We may not reach another European final, we should start with our strongest line up.. and for me, that is Leno in goal..
I agree – no time for sentimentality. Last chance for a CL spot at stake – play strongest team. We’re not Watford :).
?
While he’s been a good servant to the club there is a severe conflict of interest here. If this was happening in a business situation with an employee joining a direct competitor he’d be out the door on gardening leave sharpish, no messing. I wish him all the best, he’s a consummate professional but there is the chance of a European title, albeit the shit Thursday one. If he was going anywhere else it wouldn’t be a problem.
I would bet that Cech is going to put in a man of the match performance here. The question is, do we have enough ahead of him to win the game. I hope we do.
Arsenal should be ruthless, something that has been lacking in the club for too long now. The best team should play, nothing else should matter. If Leno is considered the better player, he should start.
Until this leaked I was edging more on the play acecho side, but if we are going to stick with Leno in the future why not allow him this game to build his experience and dare I say it, keep some players in the squad with a winning mentality.
We’ve been a charity case to far too many teams down the years and need to be more selfish as a club.
acheco being my phones nickname for Petr Cech!
I prefer to have Leno in goal not because I doubt Cech’s professionalism but because he would be remembered as a bad if he made a mistake that will cause us to lose the final and go ahead to become Chelsea’s sporting director.
While I don’t doubt Cech professionalism and commitment to Arsenal while playing for us I concur that the leak was deliberate from someone in Chelsea as a distraction. These things are planned and doesn’t happen by chance. Note that’s it Cech who issues a denial while the Club is quiet.
On the same day they announced Oli Giroud has signed a new contract and loves them blah blah blah wants to win against us blah, blah, blah. If anything this should show Petr Cech what scumbags Chelshit are, and if he really wants to go back there and work with John Terry I thought he was better than that.
If he doesn’t start he should definitely finish the match. Even if it’s as an injury time sub.
Cech was part of the team that just won home and away against both Napoli and Valencia. Leno was part of our end of season Premier League shit show. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame Leno for this (though the Wolves game reminded us that, even after an excellent season, he is capable of mistakes), but I think that the rest of the team is perfectly comfortable with Cech behind them and that Cech might even be in a more positive frame of mind than Leno at this point. This is not about sentimentality, but simply not changing a… Read more »
Why should playing the games up to the final guarantee a spot for the goalkeeper? Elneny and Willock played a lot of the earlier games. Smith-Rowe was scoring goals in the group stage – even Jenkinson got game time! But they, quite rightly, dropped out of the team as the quality of opposition improved and the stakes got higher. The same should be true with Cech – he is our second choice goalkeeper, so should be on the bench.
Imagine the scenario. Petr is sent some money from his homeland through the post. He goes to put the money in his account but the cashier at the bank thinks something’s not quote right. What does the cashier do?
The cashier must check Cech’s Czech cheque of course.
Sorry. That was a bad one
In relation to the issue of who plays in goal next week. Leno for me please. He’s just better.
It’s a European final.. play your best team. Cech isn’t part of our best team. Our ambitions for winning a European trophy and playing Champions League football next season far outweigh the importance of giving a keeper who, I daresay, has been mediocre for us a send off.
We will play him.
Sure he has a bit of a ‘conflict of interest’ with his post playing career at Chelsea but he’s a professional and will want to win something (regardless of opponent) to cap of his career.
It s really surprising to see how people speak for Cech. He is not a starter not because of his quality but because Leno is the future. Cech is still better at crosses and high balls and if the play with Giroud and aim to damage us from set pieces then Cech is better option.
Plus I believe that players wanna play for coaches that keep their promises and dont throw the team under the bus like the Disrespectful One.