Cech, the most successful keeper in Chelsea’s history having won four Premier League titles and one Champions League, said his decision to sign with Arsenal this week came down to a belief the London club can win a first league title in 12 years.
“I have big personal ambitions to win trophies and win the games and Arsenal is a football club that wants the same,” Cech told reporters in Prague on Wednesday.
“Last season, it was a great season for them, but there was something missing, just the little last jump over the hurdle to…they were very very close. I believe that this team has the potential to jump over that hurdle and challenge for the trophies.
“The reason why Arsenal was that it was the first club which matched my ambitions, my personal ambitions. It is the club which wants to win trophies. I have spoken to Arsene Wenger and he played a big part in that because he presented me with the project I believe. It is exactly which at this stage of my career I want to be part of, and the motivation and the ambitions for the team to win trophies and obviously I decided to go ahead.”
FA Cup holders Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2004 and finished 12 points behind champions Chelsea last season.
The 33-year-old, a long-serving Chelsea goalkeeper, reiterated he never thought he would leave Stamford Bridge but had no alternative after becoming second-choice to Belgian Thibaut Courtois last season.
Commitment to football
“I realise that although he made that decision to go ahead with Thibaut he has a huge respect for me and that’s the most important,” said Cech of his former manager Jose Mourinho.
“Obviously now we will be opponents, I want to win, he wants to win, and I have learned a lot from him. One of those things was that if you have to make a hard decision you have to make sure that you will do it if you believe it is a right choice. He made his decision, I had to make my decision and obviously now we are in the situation like that. I have a huge respect for him and we had a good chat about that and obviously I know he would love to make me to stay but this is the way it goes.”
Cech said the lure of playing regularly was a big reason for his move.
“Last season I realised how much I love playing football on a regular basis, how much I love to be a part of the team week in and week out and as I said my commitment and approach to football is the same as at the beginning of my career and I realise that this is not time for me to go and sit on the bench because I believe I still have,” he said.
“During the season and all those matches I played I proved to myself that I still have the level required to play in the Premier League and the Champions league in the big games. And the reason why I decided to make this move is purely football reason, because I want to have that feeling every week to be on the pitch and possibly to play to win games, to win trophies and to be part of the team. It is simple as that.”
Cech, who will play one of his first games for Arsenal against his former club in the Community Shield at Wembley on August 2nd, will join Arsenal’s training sessions in the second week of July before the club heads to Asia for exhibition matches.
source: citzen tv