By Rob Draper
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For a man who appears so serious on the pitch, Petr Cech laughs infectiously during interviews. But the Chelsea stalwart, goalkeeping giant and spare-time drummer in an Indie rock band is not so laid-back when he can see a wasted season coming into view.
And as Chelsea prepare for their first game under interim manager Rafa Benitez, when they take on champions Manchester City at Stamford Bridge, Cech is in reflective mood over the departure of Roberto di Matteo just 186 days since he led the club to their first Champions League triumph.
Cover star: Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech
Cech, Chelsea captain in the absence of the injured John Terry, agrees that he feels sorry for Di Matteo. 'He will always be a huge part of the history of this club with all he has achieved as a player and manager,' he says. 'It was sad to see him go early like that, but that's football life, unfortunately.'
If Cech appears philosophical amid the disorder that currently is Chelsea, then that is a reflection both of the man and of the need that players have to build a wall between themselves and the chaos around them.
It has been quite a week for Cech, but then he is used to that. When you are a Chelsea veteran, traumatic weeks become part of the background noise of life, an inconvenience to be negotiated. This, after all, is the seventh managerial transition the Czech goalkeeper has experienced in his eight years at Stamford Bridge.
But for Cech, the 2-1 defeat at West Bromwich Albion eight days ago, followed by the Champions League setback against Juventus in midweek which precipitated the departure of Di Matteo, was enough to rattle even his unflappable nature.
Difficult times: Cech argues with defender David Luiz
Chelsea's defensive performance at The Hawthorns had been some way short of what is expected from the European champions. In the dressing room afterwards, some home truths needed to be told. According to one report, the opinion voiced by one player during the post-match debrief was brief and to the point: 'We were f****** rubbish.'
Cech is reluctant to go into details or to expand on what was said. But he admits that it was he who took the lead.
'It was a speech I had to make to the team,' he says. 'About what we are and what we want to be and that we have to improve if we are to fulfil our expectations. We were all in the same boat - manager, coaching staff and all players.
'We've ended up in this situation and we are all responsible for that, so we need to put it right now. Unfortunately, the manager is always the one who gets under pressure the most.'
Cech admits he is a little baffled by what has happened to Chelsea's season. Before the past two results, he had talked confidently about the stylistic change that Chelsea had been embracing, from a direct, powerful team to an intricate passing side.
'You can see the change of the generation is happening slowly but surely,' he says.
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'We have a lot of new players and players that haven't been here for a long time. So it feels like a new Chelsea and obviously the players are really different players and have brought a different style; their way of playing football is completely different.'
The change of style starts with Cech, no longer required to kick long for Didier Drogba but expected to distribute the ball through the centre-halves. 'I'm fine about this,' he insists, 'because if you have Juan ([Mata] and Eden [Hazard] on one side and they're standing next to [Ryan] Shawcross and [Robert] Huth, there's no point kicking the ball.'
But has the move away from Chelsea's traditional strengths left them exposed? 'We had a very good start to the season so I don't think it all happened too quickly,' says Cech. 'Thanks to the run of recent results people started talking about it, but I think it was the case that we were not defending well as a team. You need to defend as a team to defend well.'
Nothing, of course, can take away from the joys of last season. Obviously, Cech is not happy that the club are unlikely to have the chance to defend the Champions League trophy. Chelsea are now relying on Shakhtar Donetsk to beat Juventus in order to make the last 16 of the tournament. But he insists: 'This team have the quality to challenge the best and we should not be missing in the last 16.'
With Chelsea, of course, you never know. Juventus would be right to remain wary until they have properly finished off the job of knocking out Chelsea after last season's inconceivable triumph in the tournament. That took in the reversal of a 3-1 defeat to Napoli as well as knocking out Barcelona with 10 men at the Nou Camp.
'I had a friend at the Nou Camp and he said, "When you conceded the second goal I told the guy next to me that the last place in the world I would like to be was in the Chelsea goal. Barca could finish with eight".?'
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Finally, there was beating Bayern Munich in their own stadium, having fallen 1-0 behind with seven minutes to play and later going 3-1 down in a penalty shoot-out, with Cech saving crucially from Ivica Olic, a feat he makes sound fairly routine.
'Left-footed, under pressure in his own stadium,' explains Cech. 'It's always easier to hit across the ball [shoot to your right if you're left-footed]. So it had to go to my left side.'
Cech saved and Drogba delivered the rest, although the goalkeeper's nonchalant explanation belies the hours of work he put in studying all Bayern Munich's penalties since 2007. 'It will really sound strange now, but I said to my wife in December, "I think we're going to win the Champions League",' he says.
In December? That was when Andre Villas-Boas's time began to run out at the club. From December 17 until his sacking on March 4, Chelsea won just three Premier League games. Cech says it was the worst League run of his time at the club.
'We couldn't even buy a win. It didn't matter how we played,' he says. 'But I told my wife, "You will see. Before, we have been marching in the League and we couldn't get past the semi-finals of the Champions League. This time everything is going wrong, but you will see everything will go right in the Champions League". She said, "Yeah, right, I agree with you", and we laughed about it. Then we lost the first Napoli game and I'm thinking, "Well, maybe not".
Petr Cech of Chelsea FC dejected
'But we won the Birmingham game in the FA Cup and suddenly we picked up good results in the League and we took the momentum to the second Napoli game. And suddenly things completely changed.
'Then we thought, "Well, anything can happen now".'
The knowledge that the times were changing at Chelsea drove the team towards Munich.
Cech says: 'We were talking about it before the Napoli game and I said, "Didier! Come on, man! You have to score. Because we're not going to have many more chances to win it if we want to lift it together". And he said, "No, you're right. If we're going to do it, we have to do it now".
'When we went to the final we were aware that we were not all going to be here forever. We knew that for Didier it was the last game, because he had told us. Ever since the 2008 Champions League final, when we lost on penalties to Manchester United, the only thing I wished for was to play in another final. Going to Munich, I said to Christophe [Lollichon, Chelsea's goalkeeping coach], "OK. The only thing I needed was one more go. Now let's win it".'
And they did. It just seems a long time ago now.
Great guy. Keep up the good work of captaincy. A good example and motivator for the new players. Good luck against Man City.
- Sammy , EU, 25/11/2012 06:13
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