MY ACCOUNT
Chelsea’s technical and performance advisor Petr Cech believes the club did an “amazing job” at navigating the change of ownership last season.
The London club were thrown into uncertain waters when previous owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the United Kingdom government in relation to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital eventually won the battle to take charge of the club in late May, with Chelsea working under a special licence from the government to operate until then.
Despite the ongoing distractions, Thomas Tuchel led Chelsea to third place in the Premier League and to the EFL and FA Cup finals, where they lost on penalties to Liverpool on both occasions.
Speaking to Stats Perform at a media day ahead of his participation in Sunday’s Soccer Aid charity match, former Chelsea goalkeeper Cech said: “Of course, [the ownership situation] is something you are not prepared for but you need to find your way to go through it.
“I think everybody at the football club did an amazing job to be competitive and achieving what we achieved last season.
“So, now we know where we are and obviously, we’re preparing for the next season and we hope to be as strong as we can.”
Cech also had words of encouragement for Blues fans about next season, with the new owners reportedly willing to provide Tuchel with money to spend on improving the squad.
“We plan to prepare and we will see where what we can do over the summer, but obviously we have our plans for what we want to do and hopefully we’ll be successful.”
Another area of uncertainty at Stamford Bridge is the future of striker Romelu Lukaku, who is being linked with a move back to Inter after a disappointing campaign.
Lukaku signed for Chelsea from Inter last year for a reported fee of £97.5million (€113.58m), but only managed 15 goals in 44 appearances (29 starts).
“I think he started very strongly and unfortunately had a long-term injury and then COVID, which obviously stopped the momentum for him,” Cech said about the Belgium striker.
“When you go through a long-term injury and then COVID, it takes some time before you go back. So you could see how strong he was at the end of the season when he was back fit.
“I think if he remains with this whole pre-season, then I believe he will have a strong season.”
Another player who had an underwhelming campaign for Chelsea was Spanish midfielder Saul Niguez, who said goodbye to the club at the end of his loan spell from Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
“He’s still a great player and he has a great personality and it’s been great to have him, but at the same time, he had quite a difficult start before he adapted to English football and in a team where there’s so much competition for places that he didn’t play as much as he would like to,” Cech said of Saul.
“But we’ve been really happy to have him because, as I said, he’s a great personality and a great player.
“We obviously wish him well now wherever his next steps will go. But I think English football and the Premier League is a particular competition.
“Sometimes you need a bit of time to adapt. Some people adapt faster, some slower but as I said, he had a slower start and then the competition for places was tough so he didn’t play as much as we’d like, but it still doesn’t take away the qualities he has.”
