Chelsea football chief Petr Cech has revealed how they came to the decision to sign Edouard Mendy from Rennes this summer.
Cech, registered as a player with Chelsea this season, joined the Blues from Rennes himself in 2004, and disclosed that he played a part in the signing of Mendy.
Cech said: “I gave my input [on Mendy’s signing], because we wanted to add to our goalkeeping group a slightly different type of keeper.
“We have Kepa and Willy Caballero, who every time we needed him was ready to step in and we decided with Kepa going through a difficult moment where things were not happening for him on the pitch, we decided to add to our goalkeeping group and we agreed to bring in Edouard. So far, he’s been doing great.
“In my first eight games [at Chelsea], we had seven clean sheets. If he [Mendy] gets that and makes it better, I will be happy, because the team will do well and we will be winning, and this is ultimately what we want.’
Cech revealed that Christophe Lollichon, the head of Chelsea’s goalkeeping department, advised him to watch Mendy.
“I have to give credit to Christophe Lollichon who spoke to me about him three-and-a-half years ago when Edouard started playing for Reims. The one thing which is great about his story is obviously his year where, because of the fault of his agent, he was without a club.
“While I was playing at Arsenal, he said, ‘Watch this goalkeeper, he has a very interesting story’. So I started following him.
“Obviously you watch all the other goalkeepers as well. I have watched 30, 40 different goalkeepers over the past year and a half, but I kept following Edouard and you see his evolution and progression every year, it got me the idea when we talked about what we want from a goalkeeper, what we would like to add to our goalkeeping group, his name came to my mind.
“The manager has a big input. The club and the scouting has his input and we all agreed he’s the goalkeeper we should get over.”
