Arsenal

Arsenal & Liverpool Target Petr Cech Favours London Stay As Blues Name Their Price

Petr Cech would prefer to stay in London as Chelsea place a £10 price-tag on the goalkeepers head amid interest from Arsenal and Liverpool, according to reports

by
Transfer News Reporter
March 25, 2015

The January transfer window is now closed but that won’t stop the newspapers from speculating ahead of the summer so we’ll bring you all the news and gossip. Today, Chelsea have put a £10m price-tag on Petr Cech’s head….

Petr Cech would prefer to stay in London as Chelsea place a £10 price-tag on the goalkeepers head amid interest from Arsenal and Liverpool, according to reports.

Cech has been at Chelsea for over a decade having joined the club in 2004 and has been a regular fixture in the starting eleven over the past 10 years to help the Blues win a number of top honours including three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League.

However, the 32-year-old lost his first team place this season to Thibaut Courtois and has been restricted to just four league starts with the majority of his game-time coming in the cup competitions.

Jose Mourinho has done his best to try and keep both his keepers happy and even handed Cech a shock start in the Capital One Cup final against Tottenham, but it hasn’t done the trick as the Czech international confirmed to reporters earlier this week that he isn’t prepared to spend another season as a No.2.

Cech said:

“I’m used to playing 50 or 60 games a season, not 15 or 20. That’s a big difference.

“It looks like it works well with me and Thibaut as a duo. But that can work for one season only. I don’t want another one like this.

“It is no secret that I want to play more. The situation is the same, it hasn’t changed. But at the end of the season it will be solved.” Cech is quoted as saying by the Mirror

It’s understandable that a player of Cech’s ability will want to be playing week-in week-out and it was always going to be tough for Mourinho to keep him happy for more than one season.

No doubt there is going to be some serious interest in Cech’s signature and the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool have both been touted as potential new destinations this summer, with both Arsene Wenger and Brendan Rodgers on the look out for new goalkeepers.

Wojciech Szczesny has been axed as Arsenal’s No.1 since his horror-show at Southampton in January so he could be on the way out of the Emirates at the end of the season and Cech would no doubt be a big upgrade on the Polish international.

The situation at Liverpool may be more complex as Simon Mignolet has regained his best form in recent weeks but Rodgers is still likely to assess his options this summer and I’m not sure he could resist the chance to land Cech if it was a realistic option.

However, the Mirror claim that Chelsea will demand £10m for the 32-year-old and say that Cech would prefer to remain in London as his family are settled in the capital – which would suggest that Arsenal could be the favourites for his signature.

The big question mark is going to be whether Mourinho will agree to sell Cech to a direct domestic rival. The Portuguese coach has hinted he wont stand in the players way but I’d personally be shocked if Mourinho agreed to severely strengthen one of his competition – especially Arsenal as he has a tense relationship with Wenger.

It’s certainly going to be interesting to see where Cech ends up but my guess is Chelsea will try and sell him abroad to the likes of PSG and only do business with another Premier League club as a last resort.