Petr Cech may leave Chelsea as Thibaut Courtois emerges as Jose Mourinho's first-choice keeper at Stamford Bridge
If Cech cannot accept understudy role to Belgian, stalwart could be sold or loaned out but situation threatening split in Chelsea camp
Chelsea will consider allowing Petr Cech to leave Stamford Bridge if the goalkeeper does not want to be understudy to Thibaut Courtois.
Cech’s shoulder injury means a decision on his future may be delayed until the January transfer window, but Chelsea are planning on how they will deal with the complicated situation over their goalkeepers.
Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, wants Courtois to return from his Atlético Madrid loan and start pre-season as No 1 keeper while Cech recovers from surgery on a dislocated shoulder.
Cech will then have to wait for an opportunity to try to regain the Chelsea goalkeeping gloves he has held for the past decade from 22-year-old Courtois. If Cech is not prepared to play understudy to Courtois, then Chelsea will try to sell the 31-year-old or even loan him out and find a new No 2.
Mourinho is planning to attend the Champions League final in Lisbon on May 24 to watch Courtois play for Atlético against Madrid rivals Real.
Chelsea put Cech’s recovery time from his shoulder surgery at eight to 10 weeks and the Czech Republic international is hopeful he can be fit for the start of pre-season.
With Financial Fair Play now an issue for Chelsea, the club could demand more than £10 million for Cech and save on his £100,000-a-week wages. Courtois has been offered a new five-year contract worth around £70,000 a week.
The matter is causing much debate inside Stamford Bridge and has split opinion among coaching staff and club chiefs.
How it is resolved could have a large bearing on the atmosphere within Chelsea, which grew tense towards the end of the season.
Mourinho does not want to risk losing Courtois or face another potentially embarrassing situation where the Belgian spends another season on loan at Atlético and faces his parent club in the Champions League again.
However, Christophe Lollichon, the goalkeeping coach, believes that both players should be offered new contracts but that Courtois should return to Atlético, with Cech keeping the No1 spot.
Lollichon is a trusted ally of Cech and kept his Chelsea job last summer, despite Mourinho bringing his own goalkeeping coach, Silvino Louro, back to the club.
Should Cech be sold or loaned out, then Lollichon may well follow him out of the Chelsea exit door. His disagreement with Mourinho over the goalkeeping situation is threatening to escalate into a bigger problem before then.
Further complicating the matter is the fact that Cech is well liked by Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, and could still play at the top level for another 10 years.
While Courtois has been in superb form for Atlético this season and performed brilliantly in the Spanish club’s Champions League semi-final second-leg success at Stamford Bridge, Cech once again finished the season as the Premier League’s top goalkeeper.
Despite missing the final four games of Chelsea’s Premier League campaign through injury, Cech shared the Golden Glove award with Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczesny after keeping 16 clean sheets.
This was the third season Cech has won the Golden Glove award and he has also broken Chelsea’s clean sheet record with a total of 220.
His absence against Sunderland was arguably decisive in Chelsea failing to win the title, as Mark Schwarzer’s mistake allowed Connor Wickham to open the scoring in a shock victory for Gus Poyet’s team.
Since signing from Rennes for just £7million in 2004, Cech has won every club honour at Chelsea. He has been part of three Premier League title-winning teams, lifted the FA Cup four times, the League Cup twice and won the Champions League and the Europa League.
