It was the smoothest of transfers that still represented a sudden break with the past.
Petr Cech’s Chelsea exit was eased by affection and respect. He has changed club, but not house or country. Yet his competitive Arsenal debut comes against his former club in the Community Shield.
If Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger’s rivalry is to become the dominant theme in English football, as it was in 2005 when the nouveaux riche displaced the “Invincibles” as champions, Cech has crossed a great divide.
His journey from enemy to ally is a sign that sometimes even the most obstinate of individuals accepts it makes sense to do the obvious.
Wenger did not believe in spending heavily on goalkeepers. His most expensive signings were almost exclusively attack-minded players.
He had only paid more than £3 million (Dh17.2m) once for a goalkeeper, and even then it backfired. Richard Wright’s reputation suffered in his lone season.
Fourteen years after Wright’s arrival, following cut-price moves for Jens Lehmann, Manuel Almunia, Lukasz Fabianski and David Ospina and an extended experiment with the academy product Wojciech Szczesny, Wenger finally spent.
This was not a radical shift in policy as much as too good an opportunity to reject.
Cech wanted to leave Chelsea and hoped to stay in London. That left one logical buyer: Arsenal. And so Wenger jettisoned Szczesny, a pet project and a one-man manifestation of the Frenchman’s stubbornness, for a goalkeeper who was second choice at Stamford Bridge last season but who, Mourinho argued then, still ranked in the world’s top three.
MORE PREMIER LEAGUE SHAPERS...
Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling, the big money mover
Liverpool’s James Milner, the underestimated star
Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, the superstar who stayed in England
Cech was only demoted because of Thibaut Courtois’ emergence. Mourinho still hoped to keep him. Roman Abramovich recognised the Czech’s extraordinary service when he allowed him to choose his destination.
“It is very rare in football to make a decision like this,” said Mourinho, who only usually sells players to immediate rivals when he does not fear them. Because of Abramovich’s intervention, Cech is an exception.
Ashley Cole’s transfer between Arsenal and Chelsea was fractious. This was friendly. Saving three penalties in the 2012 Uefa Champions League final rendered Cech a Chelsea legend. He was granted special status after 486 games, 13 major trophies and 11 years.
Arsenal’s only silverware in the same time has come in the FA Cup. They have never possessed the Premier League’s best defensive record during Cech’s time in England. It suggests that a serial winner could help effect a transformation from stylish top-four finishers to champions.
John Terry’s arithmetic indicates so. “He will save them 12 or 15 points a season,” the Chelsea captain said. A dozen points separated Arsenal and Chelsea last season, but footballers’ comments often do not stand up to scrutiny.
Arsenal only dropped 12 points during Ospina’s 18-game stint in goal, two in a 0-0 draw. The Colombian was rarely bracketed with the best, but his record was outstanding.
Cech represents an upgrade, but there may not be much scope for improvement.
The notion of a world-class goalkeeper reshaping the league table has been established since Brian Clough, no stranger to exaggeration, said Peter Shilton was worth an extra 18 points to his Nottingham Forest team in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Yet in Premier League history, there are perhaps only two seasons when a goalkeeper has been worth 15 points to an elite team: Peter Schmeichel in 1995/96, when the Dane made extraordinary saves at vital moments as he and Eric Cantona were the catalysts for Manchester United’s title win, and David de Gea last season, when many a victory could be traced to his improbable stops at pivotal points.
Cech has played behind the most frugal defence ever in the division, when Mourinho’s team were only breached 15 times in the 2004/05 campaign.
He was at his peak then; whereas goalkeepers can be at their best in their thirties, Cech seemed at his most intimidating in his early twenties.
At 33, he is scarcely yesterday’s man.
But whereas Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas, his elders, were long held up as the world’s greatest goalkeepers, now the torch has been passed to a younger generation of Manuel Neuer, Courtois and De Gea.
Certainly Mourinho prioritised the future. Cech’s professionalism was apparent in the way he accepted his bench-warming duties.
The Portuguese’s regard for a popular character was evident in his attempts to keep Cech involved. He kept a clean sheet against Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup final and only conceded twice in his seven league games.
But that is a small sample size. Five of those were at home and only one, against Arsenal, involved top-seven opponents.
Yet what the 2012 Champions League final demonstrated is that sometimes goalkeepers’ importance can be measured in major matches, rather than over a season. Forget notions of being worth 12 or 15 points.
If Cech can produce match-winning or point-saving contributions against Chelsea, United and Manchester City and Arsenal become champions, Mourinho’s fears will be realised.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @NatSportUAE
