Date: 30th June 2015 at 5:00pm
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It been 24 hours now for the dust to settle and gooners to come down from the euphoria. Petr Cech has signed for Arsenal after weeks of speculation and twists threatened to turn into a right saga. First Mourinho insisted he wants Cech to stay, then he conceded the player can go but not to Arsenal. Then there was the rumour of Chelsea demanding a player in return, and the two clubs reportedly struggling to agree to terms.

Makes no difference now, the deal is finally done and dusted, and Arsenal finally have the world beater between the sticks they have been crying out for. Though he has yet to catch a football in Arsenal colours, he was worth every second of the wait.

It is a little known fact that Arsenal were after Cech as early as 2oo2 when he was a teenager playing for Sparta Prague. Cech told the official Arsenal website that he very much wanted the move but couldn’t obtain a work permit. Aged just 19, he did not feature in the required 75% of the Czech Republic’s international fixtures and was therefore denied the permit and opted instead to join Rennes in France.

Two years later he joined Chelsea, and the rest as you know is history. Funny game football is, as Cech could have been the eventual successor to David Seaman. Arsenal signed Jens Lehmann in 2003 who was older and more experienced than Cech, but knowing what we know now, Cech could well have developed and overtaken Lehmann in the XI.

It wasn’t to be though, and Lehmann more than compensated the club. Here we stand 11 years later, and Cech is finally an Arsenal man. In some ways, the timing is just right. Arsenal have finally come through a period of financial restraint and difficulty do to the construction of Emirates Stadium, and it could be argued that Cech would not have made much of a difference had he joined earlier.

Arsenal lacked the funds to build a strong enough squad in front of Cech to challenge for major honours anyway, so he really could not have joined at a better time. He joins now when Arsenal are once again a major player in the market and have the necessary funds to invest in the squad.

Plus you know, the whole Courtois thing.

Welcome to Arsenal Petr and COYG!

 

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