How good was cech at 22/23? He was far from the perfect keeper. Tibo is one of the best keepers around atm and replacing him would be difficult so dunno why people would even welcome the idea of selling him.

Not every promising young keeper will end up as the next buffon or kahn, the same as every promising young attacker will not be the next messi or ronaldo. He has bundles of potential though and this should be nurtured. Maybe a new goalkeeping coach could help?

Edited March 22, 201610 yr by enigma

How good was cech at 22/23? He was far from the perfect keeper. Tibo is one of the best keepers around atm and replacing him would be difficult so dunno why people would even welcome the idea of selling him.

 

At 22/23 Petr Cechs Chelsea set a record by conceding only 15 goals all season.

 

?ech set a new Premier League record of 1,025 minutes without letting in a goal.

 

he was also awarded theGolden Glove at the end of the 2004–05 season for keeping a record 21 clean sheets in the Premier League.[22] The team, having conceded only 15 league goals in the entire season, also set a new record.

 

He was definitely not 'far from the perfect keeper'. Trying to sell Cech short to big up Tibo will not work out well for anyone I'm afraid.

Edited March 22, 201610 yr by Stim

The most useful piece of information is one that only those close to Courtois might know: Does Thibaut recognize that he's having a weak season and needs to improve and isn't playing at an acceptable level to for his salary and standing? He had an arrogant attitude in the past that suggested he had an inflated view of himself. Is that still the case?

One thing that makes me hopeful and sympathetic toward Eden is that he clearly recognizes that he's having problems and genuinely seems to want to improve, and he knows that his form can't justify his salary and shouldn't entitle him to a guaranteed starting spot.

If Thibaut recognizes his form has been weak and merits alternating with Begovic to compete for the starting spot, then I have full confidence in him going forward. If he still thinks he's entitled to start by virtue of his talent/potential/previous season, then that's trouble.

None of us know as he hasn't said anything to suggest either way.

Edited March 22, 201610 yr by offside

At 22/23 Petr Cechs Chelsea set a record by conceding only 15 goals all season.

 

?ech set a new Premier League record of 1,025 minutes without letting in a goal.

 

he was also awarded theGolden Glove at the end of the 2004–05 season for keeping a record 21 clean sheets in the Premier League.[22] The team, having conceded only 15 league goals in the entire season, also set a new record.

 

He was definitely not 'far from the perfect keeper'. Trying to sell Cech short to big up Tibo will not work out well for anyone I'm afraid.

 

He also had arguably the greatest Premier League centre-back partnership of all time in front of him as well as the greatest defensive midfielder of the last 30 years protecting them.

 

Courtois this season has had Zouma and Terry out, a porous midfield offering little protection and full-backs constantly alternating. 

 

What would be interesting would be to see the types of shots and crosses the two keepers were facing at that age. Maybe Cech was higher-regarded at 23, but I doubt that was true at any age before that.

you are making it sounds like it's ok for Courtois to be poor because everyone on the team has been poor.

I think it would give him chance to show how good of a GK he is and make some amazing saves like De Gea.

In my opinion he was nothing special last season, he conceded too many goals and his distribution has been awful.

He's not consistent at all. I know he's only 23 (will be 24 soon) but I don't see him improving much. I think if he was competing on the spot on the team he would improve.

Perhaps he feels too safe knowing he will be 1st choice even if he doesn't perform during entire season.

He doesn't need to fight for the 1st spot on the team and last season he refused to compete with Petr - to be that's a sh*tty addittude!!!

 

you are making it sounds like it's ok for Courtois to be poor because everyone on the team has been poor.

I think it would give him chance to show how good of a GK he is and make some amazing saves like De Gea.

In my opinion he was nothing special last season, he conceded too many goals and his distribution has been awful.

He's not consistent at all. I know he's only 23 (will be 24 soon) but I don't see him improving much. I think if he was competing on the spot on the team he would improve.

Perhaps he feels too safe knowing he will be 1st choice even if he doesn't perform during entire season.

He doesn't need to fight for the 1st spot on the team and last season he refused to compete with Petr - to be that's a sh*tty addittude!!!

 

I feel its as if hes let his standards drop because he does not have a great defence or even a better defence to help him.

 

I take back nothing I said about cechs quality, he really was the real deal. But courtois does not have anyone to put the fear of christ into him. Cech had a defence made up of some of the ugliest and meanest defenders in europe at the time. That early version of JT was a totally different animal to what you see now too.

He also had arguably the greatest Premier League centre-back partnership of all time in front of him as well as the greatest defensive midfielder of the last 30 years protecting them.

 

Even though people love to trot this out, he was still making outrageous saves and there was a cash reward for the first player to score against him. Use this crutch all you want, he was still one of the best in the world at the time.

 

If you people want to really discredit Cech so much use his stats for his national team. 

 

Just frustrates me when people are putting up all these excuses to try and diminish Cech in their desperation to talk up Tibo. Forget about Cech, it doesn't matter. Focus on Tibo.

Even though people love to trot this out, he was still making outrageous saves and there was a cash reward for the first player to score against him. Use this crutch all you want, he was still one of the best in the world at the time.

 

If you people want to really discredit Cech so much use his stats for his national team. 

 

Just frustrates me when people are putting up all these excuses to try and diminish Cech in their desperation to talk up Tibo. Forget about Cech, it doesn't matter. Focus on Tibo.

 

Is pointing out that he had such a brilliant defence really 'trotting' something out? 

 

By the way, I'm not discrediting Cech simply recounting history to you. Sorry about that. I'm quite happy to say that Courtois has had a poor season by his standards but let's not go down this route of saying 'well Cech was better at the same age' because firstly the circumstances are different, but also one could quite easily say that Courtois's performances over the last few seasons were above Cech's at the same age.

 

It's just pointless tit-for-tat because some people don't seem to have gotten over us replacing Cech with Thibaut and they're eager to score some internet points.

 

We had a great keeper for a decade. We've now got the chance to have another great keeper for the next decade. Let's try and enjoy that rather than argue subjective points about which one is better at the age of 23. 

Cech was part of one of the best defenses world football has ever seen.

Courtois hasn't been afforded that kind opportunity.

 

Cech was also making world class saves and wasn't making mistakes every game. Courtois hasn't been making world class saves since he arrived, the odd one here and there but nothing consistent, and he always looks like he has an error in him.

 

Hilario also played in front of a great defence but it didn't make him any better. Cech wasn't just good because of the defence in front of him, he was good on his own merit. Courtois wouldn't have made the saves Cech was making in that record breaking season i am sure of that.

 

How good was cech at 22/23? He was far from the perfect keeper. Tibo is one of the best keepers around atm and replacing him would be difficult so dunno why people would even welcome the idea of selling him.

 

At the same age, Cech was about as perfect as you were going to get. I have not seen a goalkeeper yet who has performed as well as Cech did for us. Cech over the years has been one of the most underrated players on the planet, you couldn't find a more a reliable goalkeeper when he was with us.

 

I'm personally not looking for Courtois to be the next Cech, you won't find many Goalkeepers at Cech's level for a long time, but i expect much better from Courtois. We can't have our number 1 goalkeeper making this many mistakes every game.

 

I would argue that if he never had that injury he would have gone on to be a better goal keeper than peter schmeichel.

 

I personally thought he was better than Schmeichel. 

We have a great young player, someone we can actually build around for the long-term. Let's not go overboard with the negativity by having a pop at the good ones for f**k's sake because then this club really has lost something I truly thought it never would.

 

We have a great young player, someone we can actually build around for the long-term. Let's not go overboard with the negativity by having a pop at the good ones for f**k's sake because then this club really has lost something I truly thought it never would.

 

 

To be honest, i don't think that video helped make your point. Apart from the games against West Ham, Liverpool and PSG, i would say 5 and half minutes of that video was full of things any keeper should be doing. If the majority of those shots go in, then they would have to be really poor mistakes from Courtois, there was also some really poor finishing in there. I also think that video highlights just how often he pushes the ball back out into the danger area instead of pushing it away from danger.

 

I agree that we shouldn't sell him though, i just don't think he is anywhere near the level people made him out to be before he joined us.

To be honest, i don't think that video helped make your point. Apart from the games against West Ham, Liverpool and PSG, i would say 5 and half minutes of that video was full of things any keeper should be doing. If the majority of those shots go in, then they would have to be really poor mistakes from Courtois, there was also some really poor finishing in there. I also think that video highlights just how often he pushes the ball back out into the danger area instead of pushing it away from danger.

 

I agree that we shouldn't sell him though, i just don't think he is anywhere near the level people made him out to be before he joined us.

 

Then if he isn't at that level, why aren't you pushing for us to sell him? 

 

People seem to be remembering all the exceptional things Cech did and discounting Courtois's. Honestly, what is the point when you've got such a great young keeper and all you do is nitpick? He's had a tough season, but how much did he miss through injury? 

 

I just don't know sometimes. 

To suggest Cech was anything other than world class at 23 is ludicrous. Yes we had a great defence, but Cech came in as a number 2 and over a pre-season proved himself to Mourinho to be better than the Premier League's best goalkeeper the previous season (Cudicini). To trust a 23 year old to play his first game against Man Utd in a managers first competitive match in charge is a huge amount of trust, which many people have questioned Mourinho's trust in young, unproven players... Just goes to show how incredible Cech was. And the stats from there onwards prove that beyond discussion.

Courtois is a good keeper, has potential but is not in Cech's league yet. 

I agree Cech was much better at 23 years old than Courtios. Let's face it Courtios is nothing more than average - too many stupid mistakes and bad distribution

I agree Cech was much better at 23 years old than Courtios. Let's face it Courtios is nothing more than average - too many stupid mistakes and bad distribution

Even as someone who will always be upset that Jose wilted to Thibaut's demands to dislodge Cech, I massively disagree.

To call Courtois anything less than "well above average" is hypercritical. Cech was/is one of the best PL goalkeepers of his era. Just because Courtois looks inferior thus far (this could change over the next decade) doesn't take away from Courtois's quality.

Well it looks like Real Madrid could be in for him in the summer so that might be one last player to worry about. Instead we'll become a top European club with Begovic in goal for us. Yippee.

Well it looks like Real Madrid could be in for him in the summer so that might be one last player to worry about. Instead we'll become a top European club with Begovic in goal for us. Yippee.

After his comments about Jose, he can go to RM. He even admitted he could have done better. Talk about confirming they never put the full effort in!!

Well it looks like Real Madrid could be in for him in the summer so that might be one last player to worry about. Instead we'll become a top European club with Begovic in goal for us. Yippee.

Navas is perhaps the most underrated goalkeeper in the world. His performances with Costa Rica show that he can singlehandedly carry a team. I'd be thrilled to swap. We'd be looking at a £20 million net gain and lower salary without sacrificing quality.

I'd be perfectly satisfied with Begovic as #1. He has lots of experience playing with mid-table level teammates and knows what it's like to be on a club going through a building stage albeit in this case it would be rebuilding rather than building.

If Courtois stays, my money is on Begovic leaving. Everton have a first choice opening and an incoming sugar daddy. I can see them making an offer that Roman can't refuse. I can even see Stoke selling Butland for a massive profit to Everton and then using a portion of the proceeds to buy back Begovic Not sure they'd be able to match the salary he's getting at Chelsea though.

Edited March 23, 201610 yr by offside

After his comments about Jose, he can go to RM. He even admitted he could have done better. Talk about confirming they never put the full effort in!!

 

Yeah just read that. Not sure about the translation but these players do make it hard to like them sometimes. 

 

Navas is perhaps the most underrated goalkeeper in the world. His performances with Costa Rica show that he can singlehandedly carry a team. I'd be thrilled to swap. We'd be looking at a £20 million net gain and lower salary without sacrificing quality.

I'd be perfectly satisfied with Begovic as #1. He has lots of experience playing with mid-table level teammates and knows what it's like to be on a club going through a building stage albeit in this case it would be rebuilding rather than building.

If Courtois stays, my money is on Begovic leaving. Everton have a first choice opening and an incoming sugar daddy. I can see them making an offer that Roman can't refuse. I can even see Stoke selling Butland for a massive profit to Everton and then using a portion of the proceeds to buy back Begovic Not sure they'd be able to match the salary he's getting at Chelsea though.

 

That's not a bad idea concerning Begovic's future. Could definitely see something like that happening.

 

I'd like for us to give one more season to Courtois though. I think we overlook the fact that he was banned after the first match and then missed a couple of months through injury which means he's had a disjointed year. Let Conte assess him for a year, see if he has it in him to be a legend for us and go from there. 

 

Can Belgian players just stop giving interviews though? It's never a good thing.

Yeah just read that. Not sure about the translation but these players do make it hard to like them sometimes.

That's not a bad idea concerning Begovic's future. Could definitely see something like that happening.

I'd like for us to give one more season to Courtois though. I think we overlook the fact that he was banned after the first match and then missed a couple of months through injury which means he's had a disjointed year. Let Conte assess him for a year, see if he has it in him to be a legend for us and go from there.

Can Belgian players just stop giving interviews though? It's never a good thing.

I must have missed something. What did he say about Jose?

For what it's worth, I was in a very serious long relationship with someone from the Netherlands. They are a really blunt culture especially the men. I used to live in Austria and was jarred by the attitude there, yet it's featherlike compared to the Netherlands. Guus is an anomaly, and I wonder if he's not so diplomatic when dealing within his native country. A dear mentor is Flemish Belgian, and if he's any indication, that bluntness crosses over to Flanders.

Edited March 23, 201610 yr by offside

Supposedly Real are satisfied with Navas as #1:

 

http://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2016/03/21/56eff627268e3e11028b4670.html

 

 

Courtois has disappointed this season, but he has been in a team which has struggled hugely across the board (and whose defence has been left wanting repeatedly); it's also worth noting that he's missed large sections of it through injury.

 

Courtois at Atletico and in his first season with us was as pretty much as good as any keeper I've seen at his age (with the exceptions of Buffon and Cech - possibly van der Sar too although I'm too young to have seen his Ajax days - this is basically the level of keeper we have to look at to see who is better). He has all the tools and the potential to become truly world-class and one of the defining goalkeepers of his generation. He is certainly worth persisting with. Begovic, as much as I rate him and for all his qualities, simply doesn't have that potential.

How good was cech at 22/23? He was far from the perfect keeper. Tibo is one of the best keepers around atm and replacing him would be difficult so dunno why people would even welcome the idea of selling him.

Not every promising young keeper will end up as the next buffon or kahn, the same as every promising young attacker will not be the next messi or ronaldo. He has bundles of potential though and this should be nurtured. Maybe a new goalkeeping coach could help?

 

 

At 23 years old cech was the best keeper in the world

At 23 years old cech was the best keeper in the world

 

Whereas Courtois at 22 years of age was widely regarded to be the second best keeper in the world, behind Neuer, having been an integral part of a La Liga and Europa League winning team and coming off of his first Champions League Final.

Whereas Courtois at 22 years of age was widely regarded to be the second best keeper in the world, behind Neuer, having been an integral part of a La Liga and Europa League winning team and coming off of his first Champions League Final.

 

It's a rebuttal to Cech being called 'far from the perfect keeper' at 22/23. Nothing to do with Tibo.

Whereas Courtois at 22 years of age was widely regarded to be the second best keeper in the world, behind Neuer, having been an integral part of a La Liga and Europa League winning team and coming off of his first Champions League Final.

 

 

I didn't use the word regarded quite deliberately, I've said many times that I watch TBO a lot when we was at Ateleit, and at no point did i ever think he was better the cech, he made some great camera saves and his dominance from the deep cross was impressive. But alot of that came as a result of his athletasisem, his positioning was always terrible and why he chooses not to have men on the post I will never understand. Men on the he post and he wins the CL.

 

Any way, TBO had a good season last year, not to the point I would refer to him as the best in the world but he had a good season, this one not been so good and a lot of what happens now comes down to his humility. 

 

The reason for the comparisons, is Enigma's statement that Cech was still a work in progress when actually he was the very best.

 

It's no longer relevent to make the comparisions as Cech is no longer a chelsea player 

Tibo for me is not on Cech's level at the same age. At the same time let's be fair to Teebo in that he didn't have the luxury of a world class defense and organised team in front of him which Cech had.

It's funny because years after his injury Cech was seriously being questioned by many fans even I at times got frustrated by his mistakes.

He did roll back the years in the 2012 CL run though.

Teebo frustrates me also and he definitely needs to improve to the levels ddg is producing. However, he is not a bad keeper and despite and average season there are not many players I would swap him with. He's our first choice and we should remain patient. It may take a few years but we can't just jump ship because he's not on the level of neuro or ddg.