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Cech: Arsenal Insider Convinced Me To Leave Chelsea For North London
Petr Cech has confirmed that he held talks with Tomas Rosicky about life at Arsenal before agreeing to his switch from Chelsea.
After weeks of speculation, Cech finally wrapped-up his £10m move to the Emirates on Monday after asking to leave Stamford Bridge having lost his first team place.
The 33-year-old has now revealed to Arsenal.com that he sought the advice of compatriot Rosicky about what life was like at Arsenal before agreeing to the move and it seems Tomas played a key role in convincing the keeper to make the switch across London.
“Of course I spoke to Tomas,” Cech said. “When you change club, you want to have some sort of basic knowledge about how a club works and what sort of mentality club has.
“What Tomas told me was very positive and I could really see that for myself because the club reception was great, wonderful and it subscribed to what Tomas was telling me.
It’s always a bonus to have a ‘secret agent’ who can help swing potential transfers in your favour and it appears Rosicky did a fine job persuading Cech to join Arsenal.
The pair obviously know each other extremely well from their time together with the Czech national team and I’m sure Tomas will help him settle in at the Emirates.
Although the keeper is already being made to feel right at home here as Cech praised the ‘unbelievable’ reaction he’s had from Arsenal players and fans since his move.
He continued:
“The last few days were really overwhelming. The welcome messages from new team-mates and Arsenal fans was absolutely unbelievable.
“The reaction from my ex-team-mates and friends at Chelsea was equally overwhelming. I want to thank Chelsea fans for the overwhelming messages I got in the last days.
“You realise I made my print in the history of Chelsea. I realise that not only Arsenal show me their will to have me in team, but happiness of supporters and welcome messages from team-mates make me think I made the right choice.”
It still hasn’t really sunk in properly that Cech is an Arsenal player and I can’t wait for him to pull on the AFC kit for the first time as I’m sure he’s going to prove to be a huge success at the club.