Whilst not on that level they were still top keepers. Cudicini was class himself before being replaced by cech. Whilst Cortoius himself was number one for 2 league title wins.Cech is a first and foremost Chelsea legend... what's wrong with me
But really, apart from our team's top 3, the only other keeper that matches their level is Cech IMO.
Courtouis didn't stay long enough to become a legend and as for cudicini, maybe I'm too young to really rate him but I wouldn't put him on that level
Petr Cech retiring at end of the season
- Thread starter roonster09
- Start date
Great keeper and his retirement is well deserved.
Chelsea quite rightly mention all the trophies Cech has won in a very classy tweet. Arsenal in comparison mention 50 clean sheets 
Shame... I had him going to West Ham at end of season
I don't like Chelsea and I dislike Arsenal even more.
However Cech comes across as a real professional and a total gentleman.
Easily one of the best 'Keepers of the Premier League era. Did brilliantly to come back from his head injury and I eagerly await his book it could be a real cracker.
However Cech comes across as a real professional and a total gentleman.
Easily one of the best 'Keepers of the Premier League era. Did brilliantly to come back from his head injury and I eagerly await his book it could be a real cracker.
Great goalkeeper, one of the best the Premier league has ever seen.
Great player... hated him in Mou’s first stint with chelsea..
next best behind Schmeichel imo. Have Cech slightly ahead of Seaman. Pre-head injury he was absolutely incredible.
Not really professional when he is in talks with Chelsea about being their sporting director just before they face his current club in a final.
Its fine
Why? He's retiring and he isn't going to not play his best (if he plays) because he is going there.
Let's get VDS back too
Defo Cech above Schmeichel.
Cech was still class after the injury but not quite as amazing as he was before it, but even so, here's stats of the first 7 years of both keepers in the premiership.
Goals conceded by Schmeichel in each season.
33. 31. 42. 49. 38. 32. 47.
Goals conceded by Cech.
15. 22. 24. 26. 24. 32. 33.
It's not even close.
It wasn't until Ancelotti took over when we went all out attack scoring 103 goals, that Cech's worst season was one more conceeded than Schmeicels best.
One of the all time greats. And very popular.
He almost stopped the Iniestazo shot.
He almost stopped the Iniestazo shot.
It's an interesting decision from Emery, does he play his "best" goalkeeper or does he keep Cech in goal ? His Chelsea future don't matter, you'd have to be stupid to think he would do anything other than wanting to win this game. Whoever is chosen i just hope neither fecks it up, so many headlines waiting to be written.
Unretired and is now emergency cover for Chelsea.
Emergency cover. I'd play him at the weekend was I Lampard.
Not that I wish injuries but kinda want mendy, kepa and who ever else to step on Lego and Cech is the only one available for a match this season. I would say this weekend but knowing our luck he would somehow become prime Cech rather than latter years and now retired Cech
Will Lampard actually ask him to come out of retirement and sign a contract ? This made me think of Scholes in 2012.
If he's still at a similar level to what he was when he retired then he'll probably be our second best keeper.
Got a feeling Lampard is going to say "feck it" if Mendy has another lay off, Willy is very poor and it's genuinely got to the point now where playing Kepa is akin to self sabotage.
Willy is also a year older than Cech!
Really? Ffs Cech needs to play
I remember him making quite a few mistakes at arsenal
Although I always saw him as a Chelsea Trojan sent there
He’s there for cover if corona hits 3 keepers , doubt we’ll see him on the field.
Some people put de Gea before Cech. He (DdG) must be playing well recently.
Who are these people?
I'll not be seen as independant but Cech at Chelsea was better than De Gea at Utd. Cech kept a clean sheet every .45 of a game whereas De Gea only kept one every .35 of a game. Cech also didn't make the howlers that De Gea has in recent times.
A little tongue in cheek but Cech has been keeping his hand in by playing ice hockey for Guildford Phoenix. No surprise he plays in goal and this time last year saved two penalties on his debut and got man of the match. He also speaks about 5 languages and plays the drums.
Goals conceded is such a lazy comparison. For example: Schmeichel played more games as back in the day there used to be 22 teams, so he would play on average 4 more games per season.
Another thing to take in consideration is the setup. Chelsea back in the day used to be a defensive/counter attacking team, where as United with Schmeichel was a more of a gung ho attacking team.
In reality goals conceded isn't a testament of ability, but defensive organisation.
If you want to talk ability then Van der Sar is the current holder of the longest consecutive minutes without conceding.
From Wikipedia:
So according to your logic Van der Sar is a couple of levels above Cech.
Not hating on the man btw. At his peak in the early 00's I think only Buffon was ahead of him and maybe Casillias(debatable). But to insinuate that Cech is a better keeper than Schmeichel just because of clean sheets is an absurd statement.
It's a bit difficult to evaluate as they played in genuinely very different teams (in terms of set up and philosophy), so I think the clean sheet thing is a bit lazy. Cech did make some howlers, especially when he moved to Arsenal (and I'm not quite sure why you'd leave that out?), but overall was a lot less exposed than De Gea has been for large parts of his Utd career, in my view. I think there's also some recency bias playing against De Gea here, he's coming off a couple of subpar seasons (one of them being genuinely not very good), even though the early signs seem to show he's regaining form - but in any case, prior to that he'd been an absolutely incredible player, an indisputed world class keeper, and unless I'm wrong has been in the PFA Team of the year more often than Cech has?
I'm not necessarily saying he's better, in fact I don't care that much and I think Cech was an excellent keeper (and seems like a class guy), but I'm just saying I don't think it's outrageous to suggest that our Dave has been as good or better.
Different system and defense teammates...?
United played a more open risk attacking football. Defense is always suspect to be honest. High line too I recall so Schmeichel playing sweeper style fits. Chelsea is a lot more... "less attacking" and have more solid defense. Cech generally stay on his line fits.
GC Stats shouldn't be the sole deciding factor.
Wondering why this thread is bumpedWoah seriously Cech is back? Nice!
Past his best but I suppose a far better option than the clowns at Chelsea.
In addition, maybe he'll teach the keepers many things on how to actually football.
Cech was better for other reasons but clean sheets is fair yardstick. The article below tries to be even handed about it but in the end the conclusion is Cech just shades it because he did it over a longer period of time.
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/eng...ho-is-the-best-ever-premier-league-goalkeeper.
I know its impossible to precisely compare keepers from different team and eras but even so. Clean sheets are clean sheets and the ratio of clean sheets to appearances is a reasonable yardstick. Its not the be all and end but Cech had a better ration over a longer period. What other stats are available for keepers?
I left out Cech's time at Arsenal because he was suffering an aberration.
It isn't outrageous to suggest your Dave is better. It is wrong though.
I mean... Just the way you post and your demeanour makes it clear it's pretty pointless having any sort of discussion with you, but clean sheets are at least as much due to the way the team sets up and the defence in front of the keeper as to the keeper himself.
But the thing is, the Jose 1 period was 3 years out of 11 (and even with such a defense Infront of him only conceding 15 in a season is just utterly ridiculous).
Furthermore, there seems to be this myth that any keeper can sit behind a good defense and look good because of it, which simply isn't true. It's arguably the hardest trait for a goallie to do pretty much nothing for most of the game and then be alert to make a match winning save, that's why i personally rate Cech, VDS and even Courtois ahead of DDG in the PL era. The latter was ahead of all three in terms of keeping a team in the game while they're getting battered (absolutely nuts the amount of times he's done that) but he never really got to grips on the doing nothing then making a big save thing, case in point those games under Mourinho first season, didn't you have all those games where you'd dominate then draw 1-1 where the opposition scored from their only shot? Previous Mou teams they end up 1-0 as Cech/Cesar/Casillas/Tibo make that one save.
You haven't been defensive only under Mou, and the bolded part is a myth.
Then how do you explain one of your few defensively solid periods post Fergie coinciding with all these results where you outplayed teams and drew 1-1?
Also regarding "haven't only been defensive under Mou" I'll break the other season's down.
07/08 yeah fair enough Grant by in large stuck to Mou's training.
08/09 Scolari tried to change our style to a more expressive samba game, Hiddink went more back to basis stylistically but had us play more higher up the pitch.
09/10 we definitely weren't defensive don't think I need to explain why.
10/11 and 11/12 we were more defensive but we certainly didn't have a good defense and Cech was needed to keep us in games a fair bit (most spectacularly of all Munich).
12/13 I was travelling for most of the season so can't give a fair assesment.
13/14 first half of the season we weren't defensive but Mou on his return did sit back more in the second half.
I know its an exaggeration but he won that match. Drogba may have scored the equaliser and final penalty but Cech saved the penalties. He went the right way and got something on every penalty Bayern took. Its harder to save a penalty than it is to score one.
Big Pete is on the way back.
https://twitter.com/SiPhillipsSport...PhillipsSport/status/1319537579478470656?s=09
https://twitter.com/SiPhillipsSport...PhillipsSport/status/1319537579478470656?s=09