“I had a conservation with him”… Petr Cech says £70m player told him he never wanted to leave Chelsea

“We had a conservation,” I said. The £70 million player told Petr Cech he never wanted to leave Chelsea.

Petr Cech has moved from being a person who rarely spoke in public to the opposite extreme.

This week, he watched Chelsea on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports. He then spoke with Jake Humphrey on the “High Performance Podcast.”

The most fascinating tale he shared concerned a trying time at Chelsea – the change from him to Thibaut Courtois. While Cech remained a top goalkeeper, the young Belgian had had a fantastic year on loan at Atletico Madrid. Chelsea wanted to convince Courtois to sign a new contract and stay put, but the writing was on the wall.

Cech continues the narrative:

“You’re looking at that [situation] and I’m thinking, ‘Okay, that’s me done,'” because there’s no way I would be happy to play ten games when I’m at my best for another season. I also desired to remain in the Premier League at the same time. I got a lot of offers to travel overseas. I went to speak with Roman Abramovich, the owner, at this location, and I informed him that I had three offers. And even though Arsenal is a rival, I still want to visit one of them. He didn’t appear overly pleased about it either. Yet due to everything I had accomplished for the team over eleven seasons. He then said, “Okay, I’ll let people know that you get to make the decision.”

Like many of the players from the early Jose Mourinho days, it always seemed like Cech had a unique bond with Roman. Cech asked for a favor in this instance. What other outstanding tales from the Roman era might surface in the future?