‘He was not happy’: £11m player says Jose Mourinho was fuming when he signed for Arsenal

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Petr Cech joined Arsenal in 2015 in what was quite a controversial transfer at the time.

Indeed, while the likes of David Luiz, Willian and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have normalised crossing the Arsenal-Chelsea divide in recent years, moving from Stamford Bridge to the Emirates was a fairly big deal at the time.

Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Cech has now been discussing his £11m move to Arsenal, and he says that he had to really push for this move.

Indeed, the goalkeeper says that he actually had to go over Jose Mourinho’s head and speak to Roman Abramovich to get this move, claiming that Mourinho actually wasn’t very happy when he decided to make this move.

Jose Mourinho wasn’t happy when Petr Cech left

The goalkeeper spoke about his move to Arsenal.

“I went to speak to the owner and I said I have three offers and one of them is Arsenal, and although it’s a rival I want to go there. He didn’t look too happy about that, but because of all I did in 11 seasons for the club. He said I’ll let people know that you’ve made your choice. I said that I’m going and this was my preferred destination. You know Jose was not happy about that, and in different circumstances it would never have happened, if I didn’t speak to the big boss and he didn’t let me go, it wouldn’t have happened,” Cech said.

Had to go

Mourinho may not have been happy about it, but leaving Chelsea was the best thing for Cech at this point in his career.

Thibaut Courtois was an established number one at Stamford Bridge at that point, and Cech wasn’t ready to give up playing at the very highest level.

Of course, Mourinho won’t have been happy about losing one of his most trusted players, but Cech had to put himself and his own career first after more than a decade of good service at Chelsea.