Retired Petr Čech included in Chelsea squad

Retired Premier League great, Petr Čech, has been included in Chelsea’s 25-man squad for the league season.

38-year-old Čech retired at the end of the 2018/19 season after finishing the campaign with Arsenal, and has since been working as technical advisor at Chelsea, alongside playing semi-professional ice hockey for the Guildford Phoenix.

Chelsea are in the midst of a goalkeeping crisis, with Kepa Arrizabalaga, who the Blues broke the positional record with his signing from Athletic Club de Bilbao in 2018 for £71.6 million, at fault again in their 3-3 draw with Southampton.

Kepa’s disastrous 2019/20 continued into the start of this season and prompted the Blues to fork out £22 million for Rennes shot stopper Édouard Mendy, whose only Premier League appearance so far was a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace.

Chelsea also have experienced back-up Willy Caballero as the fourth keeper in their squad, who is even older than Čech at 39, but with a global pandemic picking its way through European squads and a goalkeeping situation still up in the air, Frank Lampard has deemed Čech worthy of an extra space.

🛡️Most #PL clean sheets:

202🧤: 🇨🇿PETR CECH🇨🇿
169🧤: David James
151🧤: Mark Schwarzer
141🧤: David Seaman
137🧤: Nigel Martyn
136🧤: Pepe Reina#CFC pic.twitter.com/R4Eq0wMhBU

— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) October 20, 2020