13 February 2024 , 09:51
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Petr Cech has revealed that it was HIS decision to leave Chelsea following Todd Boehly's takeover in May 2022.
The former Blues No.1 returned to west London as a technical and performance advisor in June 2019 after leaving Arsenal and retiring from professional football. During his second season back, Cech was included in Chelsea's 25-man Premier League squad as an emergency goalkeeper and as a non-contract player.
That was said to be a precautionary move due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Cech ended up making one appearance for the club's Under 23s side. Later that season, whilst hundreds of Chelsea fans protested against the proposed European Super League outside Stamford Bridge, Cech approached fans and said "give us time".
Cech's time at Chelsea came to an end in the summer of 2022, however, after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned due to the Russia-Ukraine war and Boehly was confirmed as the club's new owner. His departure came after fellow directors Bruce Buck and Marina Granovskaia both left.
Now, Cech has opened up on his second stint at Chelsea and why he decided to depart. The ex-Czech Republic international told the High Performance Podcast: "We all know that there were a lot of changes. With the difficulty of the sanctions, the difficulty of changing the circumstance, if you go through transitions or changing of ownership which is planned and prepared, then of course you plan and prepare for it.
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"You know the timeline, you know exactly what will be happening, and you can plan with it. You have discussions about your future plans. Then, some things are happening very quickly and you end up in the situation when you discover how things might work, what is the new vision, and the way I am and the way I do things."
Petr Cech spent three years as a director at Chelsea (Getty Images)
Boehly's consortium paid £4.25billion to buy the Blues from Abramovich and the US businessman has made a number of changes both on and off the pitch during his time at the club so far. But Cech, who spent 11 years at Chelsea as a player, felt it was too many alterations to fit in.
Cech continued: "I have to believe that I'm 100 per cent into the case, so when you have a lot of changes and you have that feeling that it might be too many changes to fit in, I felt like when everything changed, maybe it would be beneficial to everybody if people choose their own people.
"You come as a new owner and you can choose the people you want to work with and you probably have the people who feel like they are 100 per cent in it, and I felt that at that moment it was probably best for everybody if I was not there. The new owners wanted me to stay but it was my decision to go.
"This is what I wanted to do and I believed it was the right decision for me and for everybody. I miss my work, I really enjoyed it but at the same time, I don’t regret it."
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