Petr Cech: an un-Mourinho sale in a distinctly un-Mourinho season

It is the least Jose Mourinho - like of seasons. Yet long before it started, or his sacking ended his part in it, came a decision that went against everything he believed in.


It wasn’t a move Mourinho would have made on his own. But, presenting himself as the great loyalist, he said he supported Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich when he was willing to sell Petr Cech to Arsenal.

“I always said I wanted him to stay,” said the Portuguese. Abramovich was playing the benevolent dictator, rewarding the goalkeeper for 11 years of loyal service. Mourinho was the arch-pragmatist. If Cech had to go, he would have preferred it to be somewhere where the goalkeeper was out of sight and out of mind, unable to damage Chelsea.

Seven months on, two contrasting things are clear. If Arsenal become champions, it will in part be because of Cech. But, given everything else that has gone wrong at Chelsea, not even a man Mourinho rated as one of the world’s top three goalkeepers could have saved their season.

In the three months the injured Thibaut Courtois missed, they still benefited from the presence of the Premier League’s outstanding second-choice shot-stopper. Imagine how much worse their campaign would have been if Sergio Romero, Willy Caballero or Adam Bogdan, rather than Asmir Begovic, had been the Belgian’s deputy.

Buying the best reserve goalkeeper he could get to replace Cech was in keeping with Mourinho’s safety-first principles. Unlike other summer gambits, many attributable to the club rather than the manager, it was characteristic with his past. Signing a busted flush, in Radamel Falcao, and a mediocrity, in Papy Djilobodji, while strengthening a direct competitor, in Arsenal, were not.

The Gunners were swift to recognise that. “I was surprised by Mourinho because he really doesn’t do that,” said Mathieu Flamini in July. “He’s a competitor and usually doesn’t like to sell any players to his rivals.”

Flamini displayed an acute understanding of the Portuguese’s psyche. Mourinho was the Machiavellian, the man who would seize any opportunity to weaken an enemy. Take Chelsea’s 2013 attempt to sign Wayne Rooney. The archetypal Mourinho forwards are Didier Drogba, Diego Milito and Diego Costa. Lacking their bulk and abilities as battering rams, Rooney is a different sort of striker, one Mourinho did not try to buy from Everton in 2004. Yet this was a chance to damage rivals. While it did not quite succeed, it certainly destabilised them.

Then think of Mourinho’s twin pursuits of Steven Gerrard, in 2004 and 2005. The Liverpool captain probably was the missing part of his midfield triangle, a man he could have used alongside Frank Lampard and Claude Makelele. He definitely was Rafa Benitez’s pivotal player. Luring him to Stamford Bridge would have exerted an impact on both clubs. It might have made Chelsea Champions League winners in 2005 and 2007. It would almost certainly have deprived Liverpool of the inspiration to reach both finals, let alone win one in improbable fashion.



Consider another near miss. Rio Ferdinand has continued to insist his infamous 2005 meeting with Peter Kenyon was pure chance. Sir Alex Ferguson was more sceptical. Mourinho had the best defence in Premier League history, conceding just 15 times that season. He had an outstanding centre-back partnership, in John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. Yet recruiting Ferdinand would have harmed United. It is entirely plausible Mourinho would have tried to do that.

And there is one confirmed case of tapping up which, albeit indirectly, resulted in Chelsea selling to Arsenal.
After being punished for an illicit attempt to get Ashley Cole, they proved willing to sacrifice Willian Gallas to sign him. They hired the best left-back in the league. They lost a defender whose peak came in west, not north, London. It was a prime case of Mourinho decisiveness.

Because, as Flamini suggested, he was only happy to see his charges join the rest of the elite when he did not fear them. Hence his decision to sell Juan Mata to United. Exit a footballer he patently did not rate, joining a club in crisis, while Mourinho banked £37.1 million.

The Cech deal is almost the opposite. At £11 million, he may have been undervalued. Arsenal were a club on the rise, maybe two players from being title winners. Chelsea gifted them one. Their trademark ruthlessness in the transfer market was abandoned.Cech had been an example of it. Chelsea had a Mourinho-esque approach before they had even hired Mourinho. The young Czech had been scouted by Ferguson. Chelsea swooped, just as they did for United’s transfer targets Damien Duff and Arjen Robben. After Mourinho’s appointment, they lured another, in Michael Essien.

Each transfer accomplished a dual purpose. Chelsea were rendered better. They prevented an enemy from improving. They were classic Mourinho moves, even those made before his arrival. It suggested his relationship with Abramovich was a meeting of minds.

But selling Cech to Arsenal was an anti-Mourinho move. Perhaps it was the beginning of the end. Not because of the cost to Chelsea, but because it signified the ethos had changed. It was a warm-hearted gesture that showed Chelsea had lost their cold-blooded brilliance.