The agent of Petr Cech has said that his client would be open to moving to Arsenal this summer.
The news comes from Czech journalist Karel Häring via Twitter this morning. He says:
The agent continued, “Petr expects that Abramovic, not Mourinho, will decide about his future, based on their mutual agreement from last year.”
The Chelsea man has been linked consistently with the Gunners over the last few months, but of course this is just one side of the story.
There’s no confirmation of any real Arsenal interest, but it adds another layer of speculation to a story that shows no signs of going away just yet.
We know it’s not silly season yet, but we’re giving this a 5 on the Poo-O-meter this morning, it’s all still quite vague but there’s a lot of smoke so we suspect there may be some fire.
I’ve always been a Szczesny fan, and Ospina has done admirably since he’s been put into the side this season, but Petr Cech would be massive, massive signing. If there’s a reasonable opportunity to get him, there can only be one option surely..
100% agree here. Cech is a truly world class keeper with 3 years *minimum* at the highest level still in him.
would be a really spectacular signing for the club. And one that would afford Cech and his family no disturbance in their personal lives, schools etc. Here’s hoping.
Yes. And Szczesny and/or Ospina can learn a lot being with him in training in the 3-6 years. Also isn’t he Rosicky’s mate? Hoping he can convince him.
well more likely he’d have to convince rose to stay
Very true m8 love cech love arsenal love the mix up
IF Cech signs, Szcz would leave. Not a bad thing just saying.
If there is even the slightest chance then we need to go all out to sign him. I have a horrible feeling that Mourinho will have a big say in this though and he would rather sell him to anyone but us. If De gea goes to Madrid then Cech will go to united.
United could still play Valdes as their number one. De Gea to Real would mean Casillas is available, but he is clearly struggling atm (or unhappy because of their fans horrific treatment) so he would be somewhat of a gamble especially as he would be on pretty high wages and not a guaranteed upgrade on our current GKs. Interesting to see what happens.
Cech will be a very welcome addition along with Schneiderlin and one of Benzema/Cavani/J.Martinez/Higuain
Higuain and Cavani are utter dog shit in my opinion.
Giroud is world class though
We already signed Higuain…
“Utter dog shit” is going to far. Higuain is joint third highest scorer in Serie A, and joint third for assists as well, playing for a team in fourth place. In fact, he has the same number of goals + assists as Dybala whom everyone is salivating over. Cavani has played mostly on the wings, as second fiddle to Ibrahimovic, when he’s a CF. How would Giroud perform if he spent most of the time at LW? He was a fantastic player in Serie A, PSG have ruined him. It’s debatable if either is a significant improvement on Giroud, but… Read more »
How many goals would Giroud score if he played CF for a club like PSG in a sh*t league? He scored 21 (I think) for a minor Montpellier and is by all means a better player now than back then.
Says the guy who doesn’t watch Serie A or Ligue 1. smh.
Signing Cech may win us the league next season.
Not without the signing of a world class striker he won’t. Great keeper but we need more than just him. Depends what arsenal fans want. We will improve next season with this team but Chelsea are way ahead of us and will strengthen as will city and man u.
We can’t afford to stand still if we want to compete. And that’s just for the premier league. In Europe we are even further behind. It’s not all doom and gloom, 2 or 3 very good additions and we can compete but how long have arsenal fans been saying that.
Assuming Cech is a better keeper than Ospina and Szczesny, we already have the second best defence this season (35 goals conceded), behind Chel$ea and Southampton with the joint best (31 goals conceded), so signing Cech is unlikely to win us the league. We need to score more goals if we want to stand a chance of winning the league, hence Wenger saying we need another 10 to 15 goal midfielder.
We’ve scored over 100 goals this year and conceded only 35. That’s title winning form if you ask me. What we need to do is not repeat the long stretch of poor results we had at the start of the year. If we avoid long stretches of poor results during the year, we’ll win the league
We do the same thing and say the same thing every year. If this if that. For whatever reason we are not good enough over the course of a season. Maybe it tactics or lack of motivation early season or maybe it’s the players just ain’t good enough. Either way the results the same.
We haven’t won the league simple as that. And you can say well next year will be different with this squad and we will have the same conversation time and again.
Chelsea have scored 70 goals and conceded 31 in the league. We’ve scored 67 and conceded 35 with a game less. We are basically in the same range. But they have 84 points and we have 71 points. Killing games off is the problem and not the lack of scoring goals or inability to prevent goals on our end.
Spot on, we score goals and over the last two season (minus the thumpings last season) have improved massively defensively we are no longer such a soft touch. But we need to learn how to kill games off or see them out at least, the Swansea games always stick out in my mind as probably the biggest 6 points we’ve dropped all season. 1-0 up away from home and we were still gung ho and ended up losing, then Monday…..well we all know that wasn’t fun. Winning those sort of games is the difference between 3rd/4th place and winning the… Read more »
Third highest goals scored, second best defence. The problem is not scoring enough. This season is slightly unusual in that Cheal$ea have won with the second best goal difference after Man $ity.
Yes and no. Chelsea this season have been ridiculously efficient (read: boring). It’s not usual for a team to win the title with so few blowout victories. Although it would be great if we could be as efficient next year as Chelsea were this year – 84 points off 70 goals and 31 conceded is not something realistic to emulate. We do need to get better at killing off games but we also need to just score more period. Chelsea are going to win the title having scored what for a title winning side is a ridiculously low number of… Read more »
My fear is that Mourinho & co. play games with us and we then waste half the summer trying to do a deal before they pull the rug Demba Ba style. If we’re going to try to make it happen then we need to do it quickly and move on if that can’t happen.
This is true, but the flipside is that we’ve got two keepers who are fine. We don’t desperately NEED to sign a new keeper. So that takes some of the pressure off and lowers the risk of bieng jerked around. If we find out on August 30 that Cech isn’t going to be allowed to join us it isn’t a massive catastrophe and we don’t need to then madly scamper about to find another top-quality keeper and pay over the odds.
Unless we sell Scz, of course. Then we do need to get another keeper in for sure.
Although Cech is still a very good goalkeeper, he is clearly past his best…he is also 32 (I think), so how much is he going to cost? -in any case, how will we be able to catch Chelsea by buying their players who are surplus to requirements? -no one ever got in front by walking in somebody’s footsteps. It is a no-go for me….if we need a new keeper, we have to be a lot more visionary. (How about humiliating Man U by bidding for De Gea?? -just for jolly…:-)
WHy the hell not ? why the thumbs down ? if Arsenal had the audacity to bid 40Mil(plus 1) on Suarez . why not De Gea ?
I am ok with our keeper ,so if they are to spend on a keeper go for one who is clearly an upgrade .Cech I am not sure ,hasn’t played a lot
Just because he’s surplus to Chelsea’s requirements doesn’t mean he can’t help us catch them. You can only play 11 players on the pitch at once, and good players aren’t going to be happy if they don’t get play time. It just so happens that they have two great keepers at the moment and one of them is preferred to the other because of young age and giving him play time helps him develop for the long term. Czech can give us the big game keeper we need while also serving as a great mentor for our “works in progress”.
The fact that he’s second-choice doesn’t mean he’s not of any use to us. His place on the bench is simply a matter of circumstances. The situation at the start of 2014-15 was that Chelsea had two world-class goalkeepers at their disposal. They’d already loaned Courtois out to Atlético three years in a row. They could hardly do that again. Courtois might very well have angled for a permanent move away. (And he would have been in a strong position to do so, since his contract at the time was due to run out in 2016.) Mourinho evidently decided that… Read more »
32 isn’t all that old for a GK with limited injury problems.
And Chelsea wouldn’t be selling hom because they want to or because they don’t think he’s good enough – they’re selling him because they have 2 top class goalies and can’t risk losing the younger one by not playing and would rather get a fee for the older one than have him leave for nothing
History is littered with players that were jettisoned as being surplus to requirements at one club only to go on to continued success at another.
Jens Lehmann was much older when he became an invincible. Cech is world class. I think we badly need a keeper with his experience. Considering we’ve got three keepers under 30, if a Cech, Casillas, Lloris – type becomes available, we should go for it.
Also, the one thing we surely can’t criticize Wenger for is spending too much on one player (or any player for that matter).
In my opinion, the most important now is signing a great defensive midfielder , defender and striker than goalkeeper… oooooospina has done a tremendous performance !
Defender?
Is nobody else worried about looking a gift horse in the mouth? Maybe there’s a reason they’re willing to part with him… you need to remember Jose sees him in training 24/7 so he may know something we don’t. I know there has been talk of allowing him freedom to move wherever he please, but that to me does not sound like a Jose Mourinho move. It seems far too ‘nice’. I’m just saying, if it was me, as good as Cech is I’d probably look at our options. It’s not like we’re short of talent this year in the… Read more »
He wants to leave to get first team football. It’s not because they want to sell him. They have Courthois now to fill his shoes, and he will obviously be preferred to Cech.
I think we should go all out to sign him, purely because he’s czech so maybe if he signs it will convince Rosicky to stay the extra year he needs in order to get a testimonial which I shall then attend. Also Cech is good at the goalkeeping and whatever.
Historically we’ve never splashed out for a big keeper. We could’ve got cesar, coupet, maybe even Lloris but always stuck with what we had. I can see us doing that again.
Yeah because Coupet and Cesar would’ve improved us dramatically…
Oh my lord remember when everyone was howling for us to sign Cesar? Or Balotelli? Or Falcao? You think of them and you think you just have to trust Wenger with transfers and stop worrying about it.
Then you think of Park Chu-Young.
Get him in. At top level he can still offer us a good few years. We got Lehman and united got Van den Sat post 30 years old and they turned out great.
Clearly is a level or two above what we got. Experience in winning big trophies will also go a long way.
I’ve always maintained that I’m happy with our keepers. I’m basing that on the fact that I can’t recall too many goals where I feel the keeper was to blame. What I think I’m missing is something that was mentioned on the Arsecast Extra – Ospina doesn’t make many saves that you wouldn’t expect him to. That’s a bit like the criticism of Giroud not scoring in big games – It’s something that needs to be addressed if you want to win the league!! Cech is a great keeper with bags of experience who could really give us that something… Read more »
” Ospina doesn’t make many saves that you wouldn’t expect him to”
You know who does ? cigzcesny! (http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Luis+Suarez+Liverpool+v+Arsenal+Premier+League+sG3JvcqZB1Jl.jpg) ,possibly more than Cech . if only he wasn’t an idiot sometimes
As I wrote that I was thinking that Szczesny has made some outstanding saves… It’s just his attitude that is questionable, I thought he had addressed that last season and would kick on to establish himself properly as our #1.
I think 1 of him or Ospina would have to go if we were to sign Cech or another #1 – If it happens I hope it’s Ospina that moves on (We would probably make a little profit on him too!).
Scz makes saves you wouldn’t expect him to make. And then he also doesn’t make saves you would expect him to make. And gives away stupid goals off basic errors. And then he gets himself red carded in important european cup games with startling regularity.
Ospina is reliabily solid. Scz, you never know what you’re going to get. I think it’s the primary reason why Wenger seems to have become fed up with him.
Just saw cech, coupet, canizares and casillas in a citreon coupe outside Colney. Coincidence?
chilavert in a civic too
I saw Sebastian Frey go in via the back entrance in a mini…
When arsblog said the other day he didn’t see Cech as that much of an upgrade, I think it’s the first time I’ve ever strongly disagreed with him. I like wojech and would have loved for him to have worked out and ospina seems a nice bloke but we have to be ruthless. Signing cech would be huge, he’d be the second best goalkeeper in the league next season if de gea leave this summer
Cech isn’t “past his best”, he’s still a top-class ‘keeper. The only reason he isn’t starting is that Courtois is perhaps 5% better and that Chelsea had to start Courtois in order to keep him.
Everyone mentions van der Sar and the fact that United signed him at 34. But from an Arsenal point of view, Cech could be the new Pat Jennings. Signed from local rivals, sceptics think he’s past it, etc. Jennings proved those sceptics spectacularly wrong.
Absolutely correct Bystander, Pat Jennings the greatest Arsenal keeper of them all. He was too old and over the hill according to the experts at WHL, but what did they know?
Arsene, if there is the slightest chance, go fo Cech!
I’m not sure Courtois is even 5% better. He’s just 50% younger. If you’ve got two keepers of relatively equal quality and one can be your keeper for the next 15 years and the other can be your keeper for the next 5 years it’s not a hard choice who to play and who to sell if they’re not both willing to compete for the single place.
Don’t forget that Cech is not flawless, he does an Almunia once in a couple of years, like so:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hg_woLx6ik
Nevertheless, once in a couple of years is better than once a month.
No footballer is perfect and every keeper makes mistakes. The best ones make them the least.
Szczesny > Ospina (Almunia 2.0)
Third option: pretend we want Cech, go for Lloris.
Because both MaureenO and Levy would love to be seen to make us stronger……
I have no doubt that Cech will have a large ‘loyalty’ golden handshake agreement if he doesn’t officially ‘put in’ for a transfer. I’d expect the chavs will agree to honour it if (and only ‘IF’) he goes to another league or a bottom half PL club, or else they’ll force him to go ‘official’.
I’d put a lot of money on Cech not being in the PL next year.
lloris would be a great buy.. but i still have faith in sczc.. ospina is a very good backup
Not sure why Mr Blogs is against this signing. Cech is a world class goal keeper and the others can learn from him
I just like to point out that Cech could add further coordination to our defense. Bring to the table what he and that cunt Terry have used to Marshall the chavs defense for years. IMO its part of a goalies job description
Long live the poo ratings!
Also, sign him up, I say. Remember him making two fucking amazing saves against us in a 1-2 defeat at home to them (Gervinho still scored for us then, Christ!) back in ~Sept 2012.
People do realise that bringing in Cech means effectively saying bye bye to Szczesny, right? No more ‘learning opportunities’ for him. 3rd choice has always been a young prospect a la Martinez.
Of course and if it means that The Arsenal are a better side then I don’t see the issue. I don’t think Szczesny can fairly claim that he hasn’t been given enough chances, it’s tough at the top. I always recall GG’s words on the Lukic/Seaman situation…
Our season still has three games to go and already they’re sucking people in.
If someone, somewhere said that transfer rumours alone constituted a substantial portion of the British economy – I’d believe them. If they’d also said these very same rumours account for millions of days lost to the UK workforce in terms of sick days, lunar howling, and long-term depression – I’d believe that too.
Avoid them all. This has a less than one in three chance of happening (the agent mentions three clubs) and the average rumour has less than a 1% chance. You wouldn’t bet on those odds at a bookies unless you were due to get a large amount of cash, so don’t waste your time, is my advice.
Though feel free to ignore, it is only advice, though with the potential consequences above.
Hi I’d like to remind you just how good Edwin van der Sar was for man utd right up till he was forty!! And Cechs better in my humble opinion! Ospina is a good keeper but too short and schez has blown chance after chance we sold the wrong pole!!
Would be such a great signing. Send Woz out for loan for a year to another team in the Prem league, and keep Ospina as a number 2. What we’ve seen is that we don’t need a ridiculously diving acrobatic, hot/cold goalkeeper like Woz can be. We need someone with a calming influence on our defence. Cech would be perfect, and he’s also an experienced winner. There was something very interesting on twitter by the way – a Chelsea fan asked Cech a few weeks ago what was his favourite league title out of the ones he’d won thus far… Read more »
Gallas and diarra weren’t past it when mourinho sold them to us.
Two names spring to mind in this speculation. Pat Jennings and Bobby Mimms and we all know how THAT turned out for us AND Spuds. Can only hope that lightning does indeed strike twice 🙂
I’d prefer us to get Lloris. He is younger of course and I believe he is a better keeper than Cech now. Snatching him from the those dirty Spuds would be great too! Plus he is French, so he can chit-chat with Laurent, Debuchy and co at the back while we smash in minimum 5 goals per game next year….
Arseblog is right…Most of the times. Cech is no improvement on what we’ve got.
If it’s true Bernd Leno has a buyout clause as rumoured, I’d rather see us go in that direction. Besides, Leverkusen may even take Szcz as part exchange.