Cudicini: 'Cech Will Fight'  (Sky Sports)

Petr Cech won’t be happy sat on the Chelsea bench and will battle to regain his first-team place, Carlo Cudicini told Goals on Sunday.

The Italian shot-stopper knows all about being the deputy keeper at Chelsea, after spending much of his nine year spell at Stamford Bridge behind Cech in the pecking order.

However, Cech was usurped by Thibaut Courtois this season and Cudicini reckons the Czech keeper will be less than pleased with his demotion by Jose Mourinho.

“Obviously I don’t think he feels ok, because he didn’t do anything wrong,” said Cudicini.

“He had ten fantastic seasons for Chelsea, being in the top two or three goalkeepers in the world in those ten years. He didn’t do anything wrong but suddenly now he’s on the bench.

“Personally you have to feel for the guy. But at the same time the club is always bigger than anyone and the manager makes the decision.”

Standards

Cudicini says Mourniho’s move to replace 32-year-old Cech with 22-year-old Courtois is an example of his demands for perfection from his players – and reckons the pair will drive each other on to even better standards.

The Italian even reckons Belgium keeper Courtois could become the best in the world.

“Mourinho is a manager that wants 110% from everyone. If you make a mistake he can’t be happy with it. But that’s just the pressure you have when you play for such a great club,” said Cudicini.

“You have to perform day-in, day-out and in training sessions, too. I’m sure that is what is happening now between Courtois and Cech, every day at the training ground is probably a battle, in nice terms. At the moment Courtois is playing and he has to perform.

“Can he become one of the best goalkeepers in the world? Definitely. He had a great spell at Atletico Madrid, he won La Liga, he played in the Champions League final and he’s quite young to be a goalie. Potentially he could be one of the greats.”

No regrets

Of his own time deputising at Chelsea, Cudicini says he has no regrets about sticking with the Blues for so long – although he conceded he could have left earlier.

“I don’t like to look back and think I should have done this, I should have done that,” he said.

“At that time I thought it was the right thing to do and the club did want me there, because they want top players in every position. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go – the club didn’t want me to go.

“I should have moved maybe a little bit earlier than when I joined Tottenham in 2009, but I’m quite pleased with the career I had and the relationship I had with the club and the supporters was amazing and I wouldn’t give that away for anything.”