Chelsea ‘set to finalize’ the return of Petr Čech in technical director role — report

It’s been a week and a day since Chelsea beat Petr Čech and Arsenal in the Europa League final. Immediately afterwards, the retiring legendary goalkeeper was not ready to entertain any thoughts about his future. But there’s no more time to waste. It’s time to get down to business.

According to ESPN’s sources, that bit of business is now “set to be” finalized, with Čech returning to the club to take up a “technical” role. He’s expected to be the long-awaited replacement, at least in-part, for former technical director Michael Emenalo, who had left nearly two seasons ago.

Liam Twomey’s report reveals that informal talks had begun several months ago, probably not too long after Čech announced his decision to retire in January.

Čech will be expected to “bring more coherence to a decision-making structure that has appeared disjointed at times”, which is surely an understatement. We could certainly use a coherence of vision and approach and more obvious long-term planning than we’ve had to grow accustomed to over the last few years.

Warm nostalgia factor aside, Čech, like Emenalo before him, will have to grow quickly into his new role.