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Cech open to Mourinho Chelsea return

Petr Cech knows what is required to succeed at Chelsea © PA Photos

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Petr Cech would favour the return of Jose Mourinho to Stamford Bridge but said that the most important requirement for Chelsea is to finally bring managerial stability after this season.

The Czech goalkeeper has played under nine of Roman Abramovich's 10 coaches and, as such, admitted that the chaos of the last week has not surprised him. Cech did insist, though, that the training-ground arguments which also attracted such attention are to the benefit of the team.

When specifically asked about Mourinho, who the Stamford Bridge crowd chanted about during the 1-0 over West Brom, Cech was positive - but with a caveat.

"We had a fantastic success with him so why not, he is a fantastic manager," he said. "But I hope whoever comes to take the job will have better luck and he will stay. I have been saying that for six years. I hope the new manager will find the momentum and he will stay."

The goalkeeper was a little more reflective, though, when it was pointed out to him that the endless change of manager hadn't affected their trophy haul.

"It is a very hard question because you can argue with a lot of things but, in the same period of time we won more or less the same number of trophies as Man United," he added. "They had one manager, we had eight and we won the same trophies. We had the Champions League, there are so many positives. Arsenal had the same manager and it is a long time since they won something.

"You can't always say that it is the fault of the manager or the players. They are working and they keep waiting for success. Maybe if you asked them if they would rather have 10 managers and six trophies, I don't know what they would say, but it is always relative.

"We do it our way, the other clubs do it their way, and it seems to work so far so long may it continue."

Cech, however, could probably do without the chaos of the last seven days.

"I have been here a long time and I have to say I have seen so many things that I don't get surprised any more," he said. "I have the skill to adapt to anything. I concentrate on my personal job, the way I prepare, the way I play to do the best for the team. This is the way I am. I am a guy who adapts quickly."

Rafa Benitez, meanwhile, has had to adapt to the politics of the club with the manager getting involved in an animated exchange with John Terry at training last Monday after the Manchester City defeat.

"We had a lot of success thanks to the honesty and open mind everyone has in the dressing room," Cech added. "Everybody should have a chance to express an opinion and if the players are not happy in our dressing room, it is not the case that we say 'unlucky mate, we will carry on, you pick yourself up'.

"If someone is not happy we try to help them to be happy again and to be at the top and be very good for the team. This is why, when we see something is going wrong, people have the right to express themselves and say 'we think this is wrong, we should improve that, we need to try to find a different solution'.

"Obviously, we have only one boss, that is the manager and it is up to him if he wants to listen to what the players say or find his own way to go through.

"It helps because communication is a very big part of a football club. If you have wrong communication even in your relationship, it can fall apart. So this is where we try to give the feedback. It is important for the coach to know the feedback, to do more or less, but there us only one boss and it is up to him what to do.

"We try to stick together, to find solutions, to work hard and to get through the difficult moment every time. This is the moment when we are not doing exactly as we want to do but we are willing to change the situation. Everyone, coaching staff, us, we are trying to change the situation.

"This week, you could see how everyone was focused, the quality of the training was very good, in terms of application and concentration from everyone and it showed in the game as well.

"The mood was that we tried to improve from the Man City game which was a poor performance and we work the whole week to improve that.

"The most positive part was that we carried that from the training ground to the game. Sometimes we had a problem taking what we were doing in training into the game. This week it was really good. People were really focused for the game at Middlesbrough and carried on here.

"There are things we are still not doing well, things we improved, but that is the normal situation when you bring in a new manager. It needs some time to gel, and in the course of the season, when things are happening quickly and you have 30 games in 90 days, it is hard but we try to do our best."

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