Petr Čech: Record breaking goalkeeper on how to keep coming back stronger (E240)

0:28Watch it early on the High Performance app. explore, be challenged and to grow. Here's what's coming up today. We had fights every week. There was somebody fighting each other in the training because there was a crazy tackle or there was something like that. But the level of training, the intensity of the training session, it was insane. You know, imagine you were on the bed in the hospital and the doctor keeps coming and ask you your name, people around, the day, the month, the year, which country you are. And it's something you know is the easiest question all your life you knew the answer. And suddenly he asks you and you go, like the simplest question.

1:17And you couldn't answer. I couldn't answer. I play a year and a half with broken shoulders, both actually. Before I had the surgery, I had it for 14 months, like broken labrum, couldn't lift my arms. Nobody knew. I was training, I was playing, I was doing everything. And every single time I dive, I made a save, I had tears coming like that. It was a terrible pain. But I knew I can perform. So welcome to the show, the brilliant Petr Cech, a goalkeeper who played 443 Premier League games, won four Premier League titles. The first and the last were a decade apart. I mean, that in itself is incredible.

1:57Five times he lifted the FA Cup, he won the Champions League, he won the Europa League. And for three years, he was in the boardroom as Chelsea's technical and performance advisor before walking away in 2022. So that's what Petr's done. How he's done it will blow your mind. Stories you didn't know, vulnerability you aren't expecting, insight that you get so rarely. Honestly, I can't thank Petr enough for choosing High Performance to share his story. And don't forget, if you want more, download the High Performance app right now for free from the App Store. And on there, you can actually hear Petr talking about how he was brought back into competitive football early after his life-threatening head injury.

2:42And also, and this is interesting, why there was nothing enjoyable about playing in a Champions League final. Wow. If you want to know what that's all about, download the High Performance app for more right now. But let's do it then. Time to welcome the legendary Petr Cech to High Performance. Just before we welcome today's guest, we've got some messages from our valued partners. If you prefer to listen ad-free, you can do so on the High Performance app. hey everyone look myself and damien want just one minute of your time to talk to you about whoop game-changing wearable tech and we've partnered with whoop to offer you a 30-day risk-free trial all you need to do is hit the link in the description to this podcast and you can make 2024 your best year yet whoop measures your fitness your recovery and your sleep and best of all, it coaches you through.

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5:52better thank you very much for joining us thank you for inviting me what is high performance to you high performance like if you if you look at the i don't know in a in a sort of like a simple um definition of performance you would have the execution of an action yeah so if you talk about high performance it has to be a high level execution of an action whatever you do so for me it's that you know how well you can do what you do you know and and you know if you talk about elite group of people if you talk about the best league in the world or any sport or any profession that you expect people to consistently you know do that action in a very high effective level so that's for me the high level performance i'm so pleased that you've started in that way because i think if there's one thing that you know defines your career it is consistency the ability to be at the top for so long it's an easy thing to say it's a hard thing to do i'd be fascinated to know how you think you were so good for so long you know there are there are many ways how you can go along and achieve things but i think consistency is one thing if you don't have you don't achieve or you would have to be really lucky or or you would have to be so good so talented or or the like you would have to get some in a way some help from somewhere that it's everything's false for you yeah and and this is because if you're not consistent you're not consistently getting better you're not consistently working then you don't have the consistency in your performances therefore you risk that you're not going to be picked you're not going to play and and so on and so on so on so it's very easy um to start something you know you always get ideas and you you start but if you're not consistent you probably never finish you know so that's that's the thing or it takes you much longer or the all the results is not the same Why do we struggle with consistency so much?

7:56And how did you manage to find it? I think the consistency is self-discipline. It's literally discipline. And I think, you know, you always hear, you know, the people with discipline, they are the ones who actually, you know, manage to go the furthest because they are always prepared. They are always, you know, trying to do. And, you know, I always see when people say, you know, we can we can have a better commitment you know we can put 110 or we can and i always like in my mind i always laugh because for example i think in commitment you can't really measure it you either committed committed or you're not for me it's like two ways if you commit it you do it full speed ahead if you're not if you're not you you do it 60 50 percent and then therefore you're not really committed because then you know you can't be half committed it's like it's almost impossible so and if you're committed you you have discipline it goes together you know and then i think that's the two parts which are very important the the commitment and the discipline it just drives you forward and therefore you can have the consistency because to be consistent you have to do things at the day you fancy it the same way at the day when you wake up and i'm going I'm not doing this today.

9:18I don't feel right. And I don't want, and you know that in order to get better, you have to go and do it. So you just go and do it. And, and that's, that's the powerful engine, which just keeps going, you know, in you and you don't need people to be standing and saying, come on, do that. Come on. You know, you run one more time. Oh, come on, do this one more time. No, you should be the opposite should be doing it. And people almost telling you, Oh, okay, enough, enough. Don't worry. You know, don't worry. So can you give us some examples of the consistent traits that you adopted throughout your career that you feel help you maintain that longevity?

9:52You know, every day I come to work, I come to do better. And to learn, to make sure that whatever I do, I do with 100 % commitment and 100 % attitude. That you go and you think, okay, I do that, it will allow me to get better. because you know you will have days where your body is tired so basically if that in that moment if you're a hundred percent it's here yeah it it can be here maybe another day your hundred percent will be here because your body will be tired you know you have a lot of games sometimes you travel not enough sleep you might you might have a bit of flu or something like that but even even in that moment if you do 100 % of what you are able to do at every day it will make you better it will still get you better prepared it will always do that and and you know every game like if if anybody asked me like I play exactly the same game and all my career I played exactly the same game if it was a pre-season friendly or a champions league final if you put the camera on me and if you put the microphone on me, you would not find one single difference.

11:10Why? Because the consistent action every single second makes your performance consistent. Basically, the role of me as a goalkeeper on the pitch never changes with amount of people in the stand. It never changes. You know, the importance of the game. Yeah, it's an important game or a less important game, but the role of the goalkeeper is still the same. My job is exactly the same. So I just got every single second in every single game with my job. And I was ignoring the score. I was ignoring the referee. I was ignoring everything around. In my head, and I think that was the biggest strength to keep consistent as well, is that in my head, the score was always nil-nil.

11:55There is no score. Because, you know, my job was the same at 3-0 up or 3-0 down. I still need to do the simple pass as well as the catch the simple ball as well as mess up on the pitch you mess up you mess up that's the part of the process you mess up and just carry on so you just get on with the next action and you just carry on with the next action and because this is the only way to help everybody is just if you keep going you know you can start thinking about the thing is if you start thinking about what you've done that it takes you away from thinking about what you have to do and then of course the the biggest risk is that you you do something silly again because your concentration will not be on what you are supposed to do about what you have done and that's already in the past and it doesn't help you so so if you keep that in mind and you just go so i just went along with it and then then after the game you just go okay what a disaster if if it was a disaster you feel it you know it but then the strengths of just get the next action right next action is the next action and and you just you just get uh get on with it and you have no other you have no other chance so how did you learn to be able to stay in the moment and then process triumph or disaster to be able to just follow the process you know when i was when i was about 12 13 i was very um stressed about playing a football game in goal because i had the feeling to concede.

13:23You know, you almost feel like an ultimate failure all the time, you know, you concede. So that first goal, you just go, I don't want to concede, I want a clean sheet. This is what it's all about. You're not supposed to concede the goal, you're not supposed to fail. So it put a lot of stress on me. And then I realized that I was very stressed and then if somebody scored, that all this part of, okay, now we conceded, so I will not have a clean sheet so I can just get on with it. I was 13 and and so then and then it started bothering me because I'm thinking you know and then I play much more relaxed and better game the moment I concede so I was almost felt like if I put in my mind that we are one nil down maybe it will sort of switch a little bit and that will go a little bit you know not not to be so focused on not conceding rather than what I'm supposed to do and then when I was 14 I figured out that if I just if I just ignored the score and ignored all the stuff I couldn't control.

14:20So the referee, the decisions, if my teammate missed a penalty or big chance, in the end of the day, I realized that it had nothing to do with my job. So from that moment, when I was 14, I literally put in my mind, okay, my job, there is no score, there is no problem, there is no referee, there are no people, there is nobody watching. There is like, okay, you do your job. And from there, actually, my career really, I found myself in it because it actually helped me to be consistent I had the same approach in like a match system which started two hours prior to the game and I went through with no disruptions and then and then you really find the as well the advantage of not being stressed about lot of things and I do it with anything I do I still do it because the I have a concept of steps in my mind and I think that's something which is really important that if you want to execute something in a really efficient and best way there are steps how to do it you know your computer never changes the pattern of the whatever algorithm it gets because it knows that if they do it exactly like that they will have the best result yeah so that is it's the same whatever you do it has certain steps you have to what you have to do so for example if you if you take a simple catch yeah so first thing you need to be in the right position you need to be set you need to have hands in right position track the ball with your eyes put the hands in the right position some behind so you have steps in order to have a simple catch if you if you skip one of those steps you put yourself at risk that you will not be on time and then you might fumble it you might you know it might it might go wrong you made a reference earlier petter to so after a mistake or a disappointing result when you let the emotion out in the dressing room and i'm interested about how you go through the process then of so after you've gone through the process of performing in how do you do the review stage after a disappointing result or performance oh i watch all the actions then you suddenly realize that there were good actions as well not only the bad ones because it's rarely is only the bad one so you can actually find a lot of things there where you go actually you know what there are many things i've done right obviously there were might be if you if you make a obvious mistake one or two and then you see it you just go you know But that applies in the same way in a game where you play really well.

17:01Because sometimes the score is not the reflection of your performance. And I'm always puzzled when you see sometimes people talking about performance of a football team, for example. And then you have a goalkeeper who is a man of the match, makes 10 saves. So you have these ratings sometimes if people rate how well people played. and because the team won 1-0 and because the goalkeeper make 8 saves whole defenders have a really high rating and I'm thinking how can a defense have a high rating or team have a high defensive rating when they allowed 8 chances if you lose 1-0 somewhere in the game which is not particularly looking good and people think you should win it but then you don't allow any chances as a team you play really well people might have a little like a small rating because the outcome was not right so you know the performance is not measured by the in the end by your person in performance is not measured by if you if your team won or not the outcome if you play really well you play really well and you should know that you play very well if your team wins five nil and you are the worst player on the pitch then you have to look at it and you go yeah today i was bad you know we won i'm happy but my contribution was not good i think the power of communication is really vital right when you're a goalkeeper can you explain to us how much of a challenge that is when you might have four nationalities standing in front of you well i i went to an extreme little bit in that case so i um obviously i i speak few other languages than english and Czech.

18:42So I tried to speak French, Spanish, English, German, Czech, obviously. And, um, so when I was giving instruction to a player, I knew his new player, and I knew that it will be faster to give in his native language. I did it. So I would have sometimes in the games, I would use three different languages to speak to people on the pitch just to make sure that they understand what I want and I realized that by accident actually there was not something I really thought I would do all the time but but when we you know when you bring new players and um and you have somebody who can't speak English yeah so you have players who come just join the club they can't speak English so they only speak Spanish and then you just go well I I'm really precise of what I want them to do.

19:40Sometimes a one step makes a huge difference for me because if they cover that step or if they do what I ask them to do, it allows me to play the whole situation completely differently than if I don't tell them. So I knew that if I tell them in English, they will not get it. So in a way, I was like, you know what? Actually, I learned the specific words in different languages just to make sure that if I need it and I knew that player will instantly get it so I I did it and then it became a then it became the habit but when when you call an instruction which includes everybody then of course you say it in English everybody sticks to that right but if it was a specific instruction only to one player and I could tell it I could tell him in his own language then I did it so what was the accident that made you realize that was the most effective way I think it was in when we when when I was at Chelsea we signed Acier del Horno from Bilbao and he couldn't say a word English so I went to Jose and I said listen can you put me all these words this can you put me all these words like that I can use for him in that particular moment in the games because I think it's gonna help him and that's actually how I start this is how I learned Spanish actually because once I started learning that then I started learning more words and then I started and I literally learned all Spanish after that because it was more fun you know then you said and they can speak to them not only about five words in on the pitch or 10 or 20 then you can speak to him outside of the pitch as well and you understand what kind of person it is and then it helps everybody so this is how I did it yeah you mentioned Jose Mourinho there um you signed for Chelsea just before he arrived right and I remember him arriving and all of us seeing this super confident guy in the press conference calling himself the special one from the outside like it seemed like a real landmark moment in English football I'm really interested to know what what it was like from your perspective well I signed in January and then I stayed in France till the end of the season played the Euros in Portugal for Czech Republic and then then I then and I came over to England.

21:59So it was actually good for me knowing that I have five months before I joined because then I could work on my English. And then that was obviously a big, big, you know, when you're in goal, the communication is important for me. But then Claudio Ranieri was the coach at the time. And then suddenly I saw this change and I'm thinking, oh, so this is the manager who signed me, kind of, and he's not even going to be there. So I was thinking, okay, what is it going to be like? But at the same time, you go to a new club full of internationals, huge ambition, hugely ambitious coach, and everybody starts on the same line.

22:42And I think that was actually the biggest advantage for me. Because, you know, I came to the club where Carlo Coutic's inning was absolutely outstanding. So you just think, you know, new manager will not really look at what players did before. He will look at them like, you know, you put everybody on the line and you go, okay, show me what you can do. And that probably was my advantage because then I could, you know, I had the same start as everybody else. And to be honest, I think the way Jose was at the beginning with the mentality to, you know, to the training, the approach to the games, like it was all about winning you know like you rather lose than draw so even in his tactics when you play a home game he said at the beginning he said I rather lose than draw I hate draws it takes you nowhere so what did that do for you so you go like you know if we are drawing at home I'm gonna just put three at the back put extra striker and we play to win I don't care if I lose and then in the end I think he didn't lose for six seven years whatever it was but does the goalkeeper like that approach surely you're thinking don't do that to me to be honest i i prefer to go to you know if you go to the pitch you should not go thinking okay let's start and see what happens no because you're not in control of that if you go there and you go okay we do everything to win we take charge of it we do it and i think we learn how to take charge of the games and we understood as well like he was i think in a way he said okay we do that but But if you have games where you know you're second best, where you know you're not gonna win because the opponent is too good, or in that particular game you are not good, then make sure that you get something out of it.

24:28You do most of it. So then we knew how to win games where we were not particularly good, but we knew we were aware of it, so we were like, okay, let's just keep going the way that we get most of it. And most of the time you actually found the winner somewhere because the approach, the mentality was there. And I think he was, him and his coaching staff, they brought that mentality in. And, you know, that confidence about that, that sort of little arrogance about that, but the confidence of I have a team which can do it. I pushed them into doing it and he did it really well and that's why I think we had very successful two seasons back to back titles and that's why he was successful generally everywhere he went I'm interested because during that time as well you set a record for keeping an incredible number of clean sheets and being regarded as defensively the strongest team in the league and you spoke about this mentality of having this score is nil-nil whenever we concede a goal we just go back to the process how much work did you do with your defenders to adopt that same mindset so that you didn't have tantrums or people pointing the finger or blame?

25:50I think we had a huge advantage obviously I played with JT there and you had Gallas, Carvalho and so on and so on you can go with all the players I had and you know there was a common goal we actually i think i think we were we we took pride in not conceding goals as a team because you realize that if you don't concede you just need to score one in order to win it's a massive help you know the moment you go ahead you feel like hey game game done because we are we are good you know we we work hard we we are good but at the same time we these people around were as demanding as i was so it was completely normal to have an argument about a situation where you know you you you go along and you call people and tell them what they want them to do and they respect it because you see things better than them but if they had something to say well i can't you know i can't do that because this guy is too fast or too good to do that whatever then i had to respect what what they see as well so we would always sort of exchange the ideas and we would do it and then more you play together obviously you get automatic you you realize each player plays certain way and then you just go yeah so it can work in luck with karavayev is at the beginning i have to say it was completely special because he looked like he's not even interested in anything.

27:17He was there and there and you think like, oh my God, is he switched on? Is he not switched on? But then you have a pass which I remember we played United and Rooney made a really interesting action and completely disguised pass which I was thinking like, oh God, how did he pull that one? And Carvaj was standing there and just controlled the ball and I'm thinking like, how did he know? like how did he read that you know and he had unbelievable reading of the game so you had Chetty who was the you know the one who was marshalling the defense you know very strong one on one physical presence communication the mentality and then this guy who read like every play like a book and played of him and you just go you know that's a strong this is a very strong partnership and Galas did the same then Gary Cahill and you know David Lewis you bring players in and you realize how they could play well together ivanovich obviously you know i don't want to forget anyone because you know but it's it's always an important aspect is how well people connect in between each other and if they can communicate well and know how to use each other's strength and and we had a we had a team structure which everybody was clear about we had the right mentality and then we had the individual players who had you know big quality and we had fights every week there was somebody fighting each other in the training because there was a crazy tackle or there was something like that but the level of training you know the the the intensity of the training session it was insane i remember when um when carlo ancelotti came i saw the first training session and he goes oh everybody's excited everybody wants to show and i said to him today was not a good session actually the intensity was not as good and he was surprised because he said well you know the intensity was insane and that was the key to success as well because the trainings were like games people were competing for spaces competing to get into the game and and you know and that was that was actually really important to how was that culture created because there were people listening to this that work in business and they would love a culture where people really care to that level how how was that fostered it's the repetition you know if you have if you have somebody demanding that level of intensity concentration the execution in every day more often you do it people get habit of doing it because you said this you have to set the standard yeah so this is where the importance is you know there's a lot of a lot of times what happen is like you have a new boss or new people coming in and they come and say this is my standard this is what i want and then two weeks later you suddenly see that you know step by step the things they said the first day it's too much effort to keep them so they don't do it anymore and you just go okay so then you drop the standard you know or do you know that that is not the real standard that you know you might say about it but the actions actually speak for itself but when you keep that going and you go and relentlessly you keep that standard and you know this is a standard nobody goes below and if somebody drops below you let them know so you either push them up or you put them out if somebody really dropped the standard the manager would come and say listen you were so bad this week and in that game you don't deserve so this guy comes in and that then then you keep then you suddenly realize where the level is and you have no you know you have no complains you can complain if you do all that and you don't get in but if your colleague actually playing in your place is getting man of the match after man of the match playing so well then you just have to go and play to him he just keeps he just keeps his spot but can you give us an example because you use that phrase there that if somebody isn't reaching the standards you either try and lift them up or eventually you just push them out tell us about how you would give somebody feedback apart from setting the example yourself you know sometimes you need to speak to players you need to tell them the those the things which are not um really nice you know the reality sometimes is you know the reality is sometimes hard you just go and say okay you know you have to figure out why the person is struggling why he's not doing what he's not doing and then if you see them working every day and you go like yeah but i watch you for two weeks straight and everybody's doing has bigger effort, bigger concentration, push harder than you in training, now you're surprised you're not picked, you know, this is not how you do it.

32:04Or you can't be surprised that your performance is not as good if you don't do the right thing. Or if there is a reason for it, obviously you would like to know. But then this is about communication. I think sometimes the problem in the past, or in the past, I would say, you know, we talk a lot about mental health yeah so every time everything is mental health now sometimes it's just the lack of resilience but because sometimes when you hear the reality can it can be hard but but the the reason why now like we speak a lot about mental health it's the what we carried from before you know we sort of inherited that culture where you know when i grew up you were like men don't cry you're not supposed to be weak you're not supposed to feel pain and the winners go like oh they never have any issues you know so basically you had people who struggled with a lot of things and that anxiety maybe felt a bit uh you know whatever it was might have a difficult time in the in the in in their private life they would never share the reason was because everybody was like all these players weak you don't put them you have to have all these strong guys only on the pitch to win the game so they would not have the confidence to say to the coach i have a private life problem i know i'm struggling at the moment i'm trying but uh you know can i need a help a little bit with something and they would say you know i push you here and there i give you a week off and then you go back in but they would not do it because everybody was afraid that if you if you say it oh i have pain i have this and i have feel then they would not put you in did things happen in those days that would never be accepted now yeah it's a lot of times you know the way the coach speak to you that the way they you know sometimes like laid things on you with with no hesitation like let you run uh for three hours around the pitch if they didn't like the way you train until you you you flop literally or like nowadays you would not do it you know it's a bit of a respect but as well it's uh i think the the generation is completely different to what it was we were used to that i don't say it's good i don't think you know you don't want to go from one extreme to another but at the same time i think you know you build resilience as well by putting people under pressure you know making sure that they understand that if they don't do enough it's not enough you don't want to destroy people just because they have a difficult moment but but at the same time you need to show them that in a difficult time it's not it's not the time to feel sorry for yourself it's time to find the solution how to get better and how to go through it well that plays very nicely into the next topic i'd like to talk about which was a period in your career where um you needed resilience because you were almost killed on the football pitch um what are your memories of of the day when that happened well i think to to my advantage that i have couple of days from my memory erased yeah so i don't really remember much i like i always said you know i remember the dressing room i remember the the stadium yeah the way we came to the stadium dressing room warm-up and then a handshake that's the last bit because we had a handshake and then we lost the toss so we had to swap sides so i remember going you know from one goal to another then then we came first time we came back to reading and actually i did like i walked to the stadium and i'm like i i don't remember i don't remember this i don't remember that i thought that there was like a different way to go to the dressing room and dressing room on the other side it was completely so what was the last thing that you i don't know you know i got i got it probably confused with some other stadium you know so but But really, the last thing I remember is swapping the sides after the toss.

36:01That's the last bit. But the parts before, I don't really recall. And after like two, three days, I don't recall. To be honest, I was in the Indies coma for some time. So, obviously, maybe there's a bit of a loss there. I don't know. So, there's a coin toss. There's swapping sides. What's the next memory? Being in hospital. How many days later? I don't know. Probably. well the honest thing is that i kept losing memory yeah so basically i woke up everybody explained to me what happened in 15 minutes i couldn't keep up anymore so i fell asleep again woke up couldn't remember anything and i i just there's the part i remember you know this is the first time just before my memory came back yeah i remember being like it's even an absurd i haven't If it's something you've never lived there and you've never experienced, you would never really feel that.

37:00But imagine you were on the bed in the hospital and the doctor keeps coming and asks you your name, people around, the day, the month, the year, which country you are. And it's something you know is the easiest question all your life you knew the answer. and suddenly he asks you and you go um uh like the simplest question and you couldn't answer i couldn't answer i i didn't know i just couldn't recall anything and then that was the that was really the moment where you just go whoa you know and then the memory came back and i was thinking like oh thanks god like i've got like i feel normal now you know with the memory you're smiling when you tell that story but i can only imagine this level of fear you would have had at that moment it's a you can't really describe it's a complete confusion because when you hear the question you know you know the answer you just can't tell anything you just suddenly can't recall anything and suddenly it feels like that part is jumped you don't know what to say and it's like the easiest question is you how what's your name and where do you know where you are what country what year what date and you just go oh i i should know but suddenly you don't and and then you know when all the memory came back it was actually a kind of a sense of relief thinking most of the I remember my wife because then she was there every day with me sitting next to the bed so that was easy because you see her every time I woke up she was there so then you just get that memory back but then I think the biggest chunk of the memory came back when all the team came to visit when people walk in the room and you suddenly go like oh i i know this guy oh that's drug bar oh that's chef sheva or jt and and all the other people suddenly just go oh and now i remember this guy so that that was the biggest part when you suddenly start getting things back and then every day you got better and better and the incident i don't recall and i think that's the most the biggest advantage for me coming back to the pitch because you know you have people who have a car crash and everything and they remember the moment where it happened so there was some angle they the car was in some angle the other car hit them yeah and so every single time you drive and and that angle kind of occurs they will be like that's the moment you know i don't have i never had that because you don't really remember diving and getting you know kicks so so i was like I could see it on the video, obviously.

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43:42Famously, Jose Mourinho at the time was very angry about the challenge from Stephen Hunt, I think it was, and he then directed his anger at the ambulance services that had came to you. Was that not an emotion that you identified with? You know, I tried to look at this different way. I think there were moments where I felt like, why it happened to me? And then in the same time, I just go, okay, what does it change? I need like the good thing what changed and you always need something bad to, to make a good change sometimes. And it happens in a, in a human history of the, of the, of the history of humankind all the time.

44:18You need sometimes something bad to happen that people come together and find solution to, to make a better protection. So for example, you know, the, the requirement for the Premier League was not to have the ambulance at the stadium. So that's why there was this delay and that caused the biggest issue. so since then obviously you have the requirement every premier league stadium has the paramedics at the stadium you've seen in the past 10 years how many people got saved at the stadium not only players but the but even the fans in the stand thanks to the the fact that the paramedics are there so that changed the rule and actually make everybody safer so in a way it's um it's a good think yeah so so let's you know it's it's it's always something bad has to happen for that uh you know for something good to happen too i just felt like okay i just want to move forward so what what kind of uh i didn't like was when everybody just kept asking about it you know you just go well i've said i've said enough just let me move on you know you have a saying but doesn't kill you makes you stronger so and in that case actually it worked pretty well and and you need to look at this sometimes this way and and and i have to say that in those situations you have two options yeah so you either look at everything as a problem or you look at everything as a challenge so every time i face the difficulties i don't see it as a problem i always see it as a challenge so basically you know the the doctors told me i said listen forget the season you don't play we'll see how everything goes if you can come back you come back if you can't come back you know you do something else but let's you know let's forget the season we we concentrate day by day and then maybe you know if you fit ready to go you jump into pre-season and then you go like a from you know from like a restart the season after and and i was like you know what i'm gonna do everything i can every single day to go and give myself a chance to come back and then we will see where it takes me and i said to him if it takes me 10 months if it takes me five months if it takes me two years whatever it is let's let's do it and see where we go and that was the that was the best part because i just went day by day and and second and i think very important part was that um with the medical team we we sat down and obviously there was challenge you know when you have a like a knee surgery you you know pretty much how it goes with the with the brain obviously it was completely different because I had days where I couldn't do nothing.

47:18Literally, I couldn't do anything. I woke up in the morning and I couldn't get out of bed. Every slightest of noise, every movement, every activity just killed me. I just couldn't. I was literally lying and I couldn't do it. But then there were days where I could do almost what we planned for the day plus next two days. we put the plan day by day with my head injury and um and they said okay you make the choice if you feel you have enough you have enough if you can't you can't if you can you can and this was exactly what was happening i told them we carry on we carried on when i said like sometimes we started and i said guys i have to stop and they said okay fine you stop but then they knew because they knew i pushed myself to the limit so they knew that when moment i said i can't they were they knew i can't like i always have that and what what was a great um learning process in that moment for me was that i was getting signs from the brain where it had enough so i had always like five minutes prior to complete like a switch off i would have my eyes sticking like that so here you could feel that was going like that the eyelids were going so the moment my alley started going i knew that i have five minutes to stop and rest drink eat or anything otherwise it would it would what would happen five minutes after i would just pass out for fall asleep really and so this this is where this is where the control was very important yeah and this is where this is where i learned actually how to listen to to my body because once i ignored it and i pass out it's not a good feeling so then i was like okay if next time that happens i don't ignore it and and then it obviously you know went better and better so i could do more time more days more the guys in a row and and as well in that moment i started making notes about the days yeah because sometimes you have a you know your emotions take over and you have a bad day a bad day and you just go it's going over i have bad days and i'm not never gonna recover like that but if you make notes of the good days bad days and you look at the bigger picture then you just go, oh, hold on a minute.

49:45Last month I had six bad days, one good day. Then it went to five bad days and two good days. And now I'm actually three bad days, four good days. So you suddenly go, you know what, no matter how it feels, how bad it feels, or it feels slow, I'm actually doing really well. And I think in the end of the day, I think the closest are the ones who suffer the most it's not it was not really me you know i i had in my mind that i do everything every day to you know to get there and there's a little light at the end of the tunnel okay i go there closer and closer and and that was my you know in my mind but they were the ones who saw me flat out and and tired and and uh not not the same so i think they were they were the one who suffered the most in the end when was the injury what month october it was october 14 2006 and they said your season's over how many months later did you return i played i think was about like 107 days after the surgery so three so so you needed i think by so the 12 weeks the first 12 weeks is where you need the skull to consolidate so the bone to get back to together to to to heal so basically the doctor said whatever you do you can't do anything for 12 weeks because it's literally impossible yeah yeah because you it will not be fit strong even to think about doing anything 100 so the the first month i was learning the little things and and was going over all this issue with my brain second month i started training like physical training on my own the third month i would play tennis so i had a helmet all the time all the time i had the helmet on and that was the only circumstances he said well we can't let you that you can't even slightly touch anything so you need to have it so you have to do it on your own so i was playing tennis most of the time training working in a gym running doing things on my own like throwing balls of the wall small balls but not high if i missed it it never hit my head so things like that and gradually i i felt so strong you know i was working working working was was my go-to thing in the end so i felt so strong so when after 12 weeks the doctor said actually now you you might think about going into trainings where people can shoot the ball at you because now you have to keep the helmet but the bone is fine so it will never be as strong but you know you have the helmet so it should be fine so then I said okay let's go so I went to the training but I was so physically fit that I felt like you know what I can do that so I went to training did about two training sessions with the team and then we went to Liverpool and then and then Jose asked me he said okay do you want to play and I said I mean you know what if I travel you know let's go I I go and then then I played but so there was the decision which I made obviously you know they they were saying you know take your time it might be more difficult whatever but I just felt that I was ready I felt that for me the best thing to do when we went to liverpool i went home i said to my wife well they want me to travel to the game and she said oh god i heard that before she goes like are you joking so so i said to her i said no yeah we haven't decided yet whether i play or not and she said i know you're gonna play when did you make the final decision to well the moment i decided to travel i knew i was gonna play the feeling when you made that first save or touched the first ball or contributed no you know i made a good save there i made some somewhere at the beginning was this i made kind of good safe and and i felt like you know what i'm i'm fine the the only thing which i underestimated and which i never really thought was the helmet because you have covered you know partially your ears and and the back of the head yeah so although i've you i was never really aware of that that much because you don't really think yeah but you have receptors on your skin on your hair so when somebody's standing behind you you actually feel them no matter how like you don't really think about that but you actually it helps you know you sort of have that feeling like something's there but when you have the helmet you hear different way and you even that you know you don't have the same feeling so you know you always have to kind of like scan more a little bit so i had to learn that but then you play one two games and and i got used to it and then I never really, you know, then you just go along with it and it was fine.

54:42So you went through a period of many managerial changes, quite a lot of upheaval at Chelsea, probably a lot of uncertainty for the players. Also, there was a period where you were constantly getting close to winning the Champions League and fell short again and again, including the famous penalty shootout. What should we talk about first? The ability to deal with all the change or the Champions League? When I started playing, I was 17. I signed my professional contract. I played for Hrmol Beshan which was the small team in the Czech League, sadly doesn't exist anymore because it's literally a village, so they couldn't sustain it when there were changes of the ownership and that.

55:19So I started there and then I signed for Sparta Prague when I was 18 or 19. And everybody was saying, why is Sparta Prague buying this guy? He has no chance to play. but we had a new coach and then the first three games were it didn't really happen well so the fourth game of the season the co-keeper coach came to me and he said to me you know i think the manager is gonna put you in play a never game so we prepared for it so we play never game in opava i went there and we won to one i played really well and then i then i stayed in in goal We went 900 plus minutes without conceding, broke all the records of invincibility, number of clean sheets in one season and all that.

56:08Played 12 games in the Champions League, actually beat Mourinho in his first game. As a Porto manager, he played the first game in the Champions League at Sparta Prague with me in goal we won 2-0. but um so it it kind of went this way then i went to then i went to european championship under 21 we won it in penalties in the final i went to france and then from france i came to i came to um to chelsea but what i learned there is that it doesn't matter how how many people are there in you know you competing with ultimately you compete with yourself if you can be the best version of you if you can train as hard as you can if you can show everybody around that you are the person to to pick they might have a different strategy at the beginning but they can't keep ignoring it in a way yeah no matter what it is like everybody has the common goal you want to win you want to have the best people around you and you want to use the ones who perform the best that your common goal gets achieved no matter if it's a company if it's a football team school group whoever you know you think so i learned there that it's not ultimately about who is who you're competing with it's about showing everybody that you deserve to go that you are prepared you are there you're ready and as well when you're ready if your chance come the possibility that you take your chance with both hands and you don't let it slip yeah is when you're prepared because a lot of times happens in the life where people go oh the manager doesn't count with me he didn't put me in and then you don't train properly you don't do things and suddenly he puts you in you're not prepared and you have a worst game ever and they go okay this guy's out because uh you know i give him a chance and nothing happened so you let your life slip through your fingers because you're not prepared so i was always prepared in every day i prepared i train as i was playing yeah and i'm always like okay if he puts me in i'm gonna show him i'm the guy who can do it and that i did pretty much with every single manager change because i was like if the coach see me in training being the best player in every training in terms of the attitude the commitment the you know the consistency he will put me in like there's no way the manager will ignore a quality like that we can't stop talking about chelsea without talking about the the Champions League win.

58:43Talk us through the timeline from your perspective of getting close time and time again and whether you ever had that fear that it wasn't going to happen. You know, we were in five semifinals, then we lost the finals, and then you always close, always close, and then you almost feel like this trophy is avoiding us for whatever reason. you know but then in 2012 as i said you know i said to my wife in december i said you know what this season's going horribly wrong and um but then everything in the champions league is going like actually you know we manage every every time you know we play the champions league game we sort of get there we get the results like we couldn't get in the league but so i said i said it's gonna be ironic if in the season where we can't get anything going in the league we actually finally managed to do it in the Champions League.

59:38So I had that weird feeling that we will get somewhere, but you never really think in the moment you have a bad season and things are not really going well, that you would win it. In the back of your mind, you go, you know, you get closer, you survive another game, okay, then you survive the Napoli comeback, and you just go, then Barcelona, if you go down to 10 men at Barcelona and you go to nil down and you ask anybody on putting the money on Chelsea going through, you just go, everybody will tell you that you are completely insane. So we, against all the odds, we end up in the final and you end up, you know, the irony is that you end up in the final playing a team who was the best in Europe at the time together with Barcelona and playing the home game in a Champions League final in front of their home fans using their own dressing room and having pretty much 80 % of the fans on their side because obviously you have a small portion kind of like for each set of fans, but it's in Germany, so most of the sponsors who get to get the tickets obviously gave it to people who had some connection to the game in Germany.

1:00:53So it was pretty much all of them buying fans. So we know when you walk out and you see everything red and just this blue part behind the goal. You just go, this is a proper away game. So if you look at the script and you think like, they have it all like that in front of their eyes, you know, like literally just to take it. But then again, we went and we said, you know, against all the odds, we ended up in the final and then we can actually do it. And we had so many problems going to the final with injuries and we actually had three lineups. people don't know but literally ahead of the warm-up of the game in munich we had three different lineups and it was like if this guy goes and survive the warm-up this is the lineup if this one survived the warm-up this is the lineup if neither of them can this is the lineup so we had about five people warming up not knowing whether they actually playing or not and then in the end they all played I think David Lewis with Gary Cahill they were the two who didn't even know if they're gonna go through the warm-up and that's why we had so many variations even going to the warm-up we still knew that one of these three line-ups can actually happen and any time in the game they could break down if they're that close any moment they could get injured any moment you know I think literally they couldn't walk after the game but then you go with the adrenaline and the importance of the game you just go through it so fair play to them they they managed to even to last 120 minutes so amazing no it was so this this this shows again the the you know the mindset the resilience if you don't have it you can just say oh i'm not 100 but then you need to choose but i think you need to choose wisely as well like there's a fun fine line between you know being brave and stupid i always say that you know you have to be brave to push your limits but you can't be stupid it so if you know you injured you know you can't do you can't perform you will harm the team not only yourself but even the teams and then you have to make the conscious decision to say i can't perform i play year and a half with broken shoulders both actually before i had the surgery i had it for 14 months like broken labrum couldn't lift my arms nobody knew i was training i was playing i was doing everything and every single time i dive i made a save i had tears coming like that because it was a terrible pain but you just met but i knew i can perform it was the two back to back titles actually so then you just go the second year entire year and you just go you know you just go okay i it was probably not the wisest thing to do but at the same time i could perform i had terrible pain every single day but i could perform so that was the thing if i couldn't and then i reached the point where i couldn't lift my arms anymore i said listen i played the world cup with it and then i did the surgery so then but then you need to make the decision whether you say well it actually stops me from performing yeah or you go and halfway through i was thinking what should i do like should i just carry on and should i and then you know as i said It was a World Cup year.

1:04:11We were back-to-back title. I was still playing well. I think we got the Golden Glove at the end of the season as well. So you just go, I can perform. But the pain was a disaster. Chelsea buy Courtois and decide to sell you. You're at your peak still. I mean, you went and you were still goalkeeper of the year when you joined Arsenal. So actually, when it's a really big thing like that, do you allow yourself this feeling of a sense of injustice? You know them, You need to look at the reality as well. So when the first, like we started training and you go through the preseason, you go through the games and I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, they have no reason not to put me in a goal.

1:05:00So if it goes really with that, there is no real reason in terms of the performance, the preparation the preseason everything but the reason was one thing you know you have a guy with huge potential who comes back to the club everybody else wants him and he has a year and a half on his contract and you go like if you don't let him play he's not gonna sign so you know i was sitting there and i'm thinking of course they will they will go and say okay you go you know and give him a chance because that's the only way how to sign and show him that you know he has a future and to be honest to him you know the team started winning he played well i played seven games in that season i had six screen sheets pretty much won everything apart of one game against bradford i think it was a disaster we lost for two at home in the fa cup i don't know how but we did but um but the rest of it like i played you know in the like really on the top of the game so i was training every time i get a chance almost makes it worse though in some ways no no but then you show the manager you said listen you know i'm there i'm always ready but whatever happens you know you just show it like it's a it's a it was a pride for me as well to show like you know i'm not gonna throw the toys out and and just show you that i'm upset and then we won a title and he was really good and then you just go so now they have no reason to to change him why would they you know why would they do he's 10 years younger than me so you look at that and i'm thinking okay that's me done actually because i'm not gonna play 10 games another season when i'm on the you know on top of my form why would i do it and the same time i wanted to stay in the premier league i wanted to stay in the premier league so i had plenty of offers to go abroad but if you if you want to be the best you want to compete with the best you stay in the best league so i said this is where i actually went to speak to the owner and i said to him you know i have three offers one of them is like potentially arsenal and although it's a it's a rival i want to go there and um and he he didn't they didn't look too uh too happy about that but because of all i've done in 11 seasons for the club then he said okay i will let people know that you make your choice and you make your choice so you chose so i i in the end i said well i'm going and this is my preferred you know destination i want to do it and then you know you know i was not happy about that and i know that if it was in a different circumstances probably it would have never happened i don't think they would allow me well if i didn't if i didn't speak to the big boss and and literally he didn't out of respect he didn't let me go, I don't think it would have happened.

1:07:57The question I've been looking forward to asking you most is about one of the most central figures of modern day football, Arsene Wenger. And I'm intrigued as having somebody that went to him after you made that decision to move on from Chelsea. What was your experiences of him? You know, with Arsene, you know, you see managers with different approaches but Arsene was one of the people who actually, you know, believe in people's talent like they they know when you come to arsenal based on some scouting based on what you can do and how you can do it he likes you to use that you know to express yourself and use that it was a different approach in a way you know because it was it was like when most of the managers they would say okay use your talent but this is a structure you have to do this and you defend here and you do that but but he he almost said like you of course you had the structure if you would have done that you wouldn't do that but he really makes sure that the player it's in position and and in in the place where they can express all all the talent and quality they have and that's why the football reflects it as well because you have this nice fluid you know the arsenal way it comes it comes pretty much from that that people you know use the football qualities to you know control player play technical way the and and it was actually you know a different different approach what i've what i had experienced like to a certain extent and and i enjoyed it i you know i think uh with his or with all his experience as well as knowing the club uh upside down you could see make huge impact uh in there and at the same time you know they went through some difficulties when Emirates was built.

1:09:48Obviously, they had to pay the Emirates stadium off and then he had to deal every year with selling the best players to pay the stadium off, but yet still being top four and performing and playing good football. So, you know, one of the reasons I wanted to go there was the challenge to bring him back the title. That was something I looked at and I was thinking, you know what that's actually my aim you know get it there they were in the champions league final lost it you know if we can get if we can get that that was my motivation like going there to say okay these are two trophies they they they don't have it would be actually brilliant if we can if we can do it and and it was in the moment where the club you know started being in again in a strong position of being able to bring players because the stadium was paid and you feel like, okay, that could be actually a really nice challenge and I really enjoyed it, I have to say.

1:10:52Did you feel for him the way it ended? I mean, I still look back on the criticism that that manager got and think, how did certain sections of supporters not see quite what he'd done for them? I think, you know, when you have a huge passion and you want the club to do well and you know you're always close and you don't jump the last hurdle you almost feel like the players were changing but the manager was not so maybe the last hurdle will be the manager change so I think that some people felt about it like that and you know it's really unique if you have someone over 20 years in the same club to be able to do that you need to be really you need to have special circumstances in a way as well.

1:11:42And maybe that longevity after a while came to some people to say, oh, I always see the same managers, same style, same this, same that. So maybe it just came to the point where people felt like some change is needed, but it's the way you express it as well. It's the way it's done. Some people took it really in their hands like that, but in a way I think retrospectively everybody realized how much impact and how big importance Arsene Wenger plays in the history of the club from the invincibles the titles before all the way the Champions League campaign to the final where they were a bit unlucky and then you just go build the stadium the training ground he left a huge legacy let's talk about your departure from Arsenal and how quickly you went straight back to Chelsea but I was amazed that one minute you were a player the next minute you were in the sort of the boardroom senior management team at a football club why was it so quick from finishing playing to wanting to go back to Chelsea you know that it was actually the circumstances yeah so So when Michael Emanalo left Chelsea, there was this job which was there at the time.

1:13:13And when I played the last game in Baku, came home and I was thinking, okay, I take a week where I don't want to hear about anything anywhere. And then let's see what comes. But then I had the call before, or like a month, even before I decided that I'm not going to play anymore. So I was still playing. And the question was, how long you intend to play? Like, you know, we would like you back at some point, at some stage. But in terms of the planning, like, what is your, and I said, no, I'm a player. So that's it. Don't, you know, I can't tell. But obviously that, then when I finished, that the week after I took the week off, I got the phone call from Chelsea and they said, listen, so this job is there.

1:14:19But if you don't take it, we need to, we put, we have people, you know, you compete with in terms of in term for the position so you if you wanna try if you're like you know you come or somebody else we need to think of somebody else but then and then i was sitting at home and i'm thinking if somebody comes does well then this chapter is closed almost and i'm thinking am i in a position to let this pass or i have to take it and i'm you know you think you go It's a big step. It's a completely different job. It's a huge learning process and fast, you know, nobody gives you too much time to, you know, you just kind of jump in and swim.

1:15:07But with all the education I have, the older studies I've done, you know, the MBA, the coaching badges, the understanding of the football club, seeing it at Arsenal, seeing it at Chelsea, seeing it like as a player, seeing it like you just go. you know what I think I can give it a go I could play another two years but I was not fit and if you if you feel like I knew that maybe I would not be able to train 100 % I would not be able to play 100 % because of that and I don't like that you know I either do everything 100 % I don't know I prefer nothing or close to 100 % or nothing and I was not sure I can do that and therefore I was like, you know what, I prefer to end it like that on my terms almost, and to get around my head around it, rather than getting injured halfway through the season and saying, oh, sorry guys, I need to retire because I'm injured, and I didn't want to do that.

1:16:13Was it hard for you to go to a manager, who when you were a player was the boss, right? You're suddenly having to go to a manager and say, what you're doing isn't right. like the way this is going isn't correct well luckily i the managers uh i had was not not anybody who would be coaching me so he didn't feel weird he didn't feel strange you know and and i think the nice part like for example having frank as the manager was actually a good part because you have this you know i know him from a different perspective too so you can you know you You have both sides of the coin. We had always mutual respect as players, and then obviously you work together, so you try to make sure that we get it right.

1:17:01I think he cared a lot about coming back to the club. He knew he got a big opportunity to come back very early in his coaching career. Obviously, he really cared about making it work. and we obviously we all really desperately wanted for for for him to work you know frank when we interviewed him and we spoke about his time at chelsea said that in hindsight he stopped communicating upwards when things started to unravel he started to become more focused on the team rather than communicating upwards and from your perspective seeing that what did you do to feel you could intervene or help him or mentor him no we always we always talked about it because you know you need to you need to always find the right balance yeah and um i think in my position you kind of you have to help the obviously the first team as much as you can but at the same time you represent the club so you need to make sure that whatever is done it's not against what the club vision is what the club tries to achieve so you sort of go and think okay uh you know what what what is the what does the manager want how visible he wants you to be and so i always went along with that i said i always said with them and said okay how visible you want me to be of course i have to do my job and my job is this this this and that but if you prefer for me not to be too visible that it feels like i'm i'm kind of like always supervising then fine you know you tell me and then and i do that so so did this you need to always you know think of the balance between what did frank say to them when you asked i think you know frank with this with the he wanted to make sure that when when he's with the team that the team knows that you know he's the he's the he's the boss he's there he's the he's the main guy to to to deal with the players and and um so i i would be you know when when i was around when we said okay i'm gonna be around because i need to watch whatever and if um if he said well today i prefer you know there is not too many people watching i would like to have like the team just concentrating this and that i wouldn't i wouldn't so that's the that's that's as i said it's you know need to have that you know way of making sure that you don't compromise your job but at the same time you make people feel okay i i prefer to it like that and then they just do their job yeah and what about your relationship with thomas to shell well how was that the same and how was it different you know thomas because he's german he's used to having the sport director on the bench so he was used to it so he goes like you know you do anything you need to do and and uh and i said and well you know i actually enjoyed you know being around because i feel the you feel the vibe of the you know the training session you feel the vibe of the players you you you have that you know energy and of course you know you're not there every day because you have other stuff to do too but at the same time you you know i i like that and i think he he was one of he said you know i always like to you know to to know your opinion and and and so we you know i was i was always around which was like a slightly different way.

1:20:27But as I said, it's more like how you make it work the best for everybody. I think that's the most important part. So you need to, as I said, the main part is, of course, you do your job. You do as best as you can and then you find a way that other people feel comfortable and they can do their job as best as they can. What would you say was the difference between winning the Champions League as a player and then winning it as part of the leadership team you know it was more satisfying winning it actually in in my second role i don't know why but but um well i know why because the you you know when you are in the team you know that's the team the people who are closely working with the team the coaching staff medical staff the people you see every day and you sort of never you don't really think too much about all the people in the offices the people who cut the videos watch they do the analysis the people who scout go around go you know the secretary who deals with every suspensions emails tickets i don't know there's millions of people who who works around you know that you have that success overall so when you are in that other position you you sort of feel the happiness for all that because we sometimes like as a as a as a football player you underestimate how much pride happiness and joy the people who are behind the scenes and practically unknown to everybody a part of the team you know how proud they are when you win it how happy they are when you win it so then you imagine all these people who work every day behind the scenes almost invisibly but so importantly then you just go you know what all these people are happy including you you know i was not on that pitch so i can't tell i won it but i you know when you when you sort of help to build the team it kind of puts the process in place where everybody feels comfortable and the manager can do the job and everybody else can do the job it's satisfying I have to say the satisfaction far greater in that moment because I realised how many more people actually we made happy so when I look at your CV it says you won one Champions League right you should say two no it's fine I know in my head I know I was a part of helping it and I take but you know ultimately I was not on the pitch so I think it's rightly that I'm not I don't have two because I was not on the pitch So what do you tell us about the process of choosing to leave Chelsea then?

1:23:20Well, you know, there was, we all know there was a lot of changes. You know, we had, you know, with the difficulty of the sanctions, the difficulty of changing in the circumstances, it was never, you know, if you have a, if you go through a transition or change of ownership, which is planned and prepared, then of course you plan and prepare for it. You know the timeline, you know exactly in which circumstances and what will be happening, and you plan with it. You have discussions about the future plans, your discussion how, what, you know, you have that. If it happens in the circumstances that happen, nothing really prepares you for that, and then things are happening sometimes very quickly, and you end up in the situations where you discover how things might work, how it's going to be, what's the new vision, what's the new plan, what's anything.

1:24:24And as I said, the way I am, the way I do things, is that i have to believe that i'm 100 into the case of like this is this is what i do and i'm 100 in it this is where we go and um and i have certain ways of doing things and and i i believe in them and uh so when when you have a lot of changes and then suddenly you you know you have that feeling like, okay, that might be too many changes to, you know, to fit in or to, to simply take part of it, like with a hundred percent commitment. I thought like, you know what, maybe, you know, maybe when you have, when everything changed, maybe it will be actually beneficial for everybody.

1:25:21If people choose their own people, like you know what i mean like you come yeah as a new owner you can you can choose the people you want to work with and you have uh and you probably have the people who feel like 100 percent in it and and i felt that you know i i felt that at the moment it was like probably the best for everybody would be if i if i'm not there the new owners they wanted me to stay right but it was my decision it was my decision to go and and i said well i know i this is what i want to do and i think i believe is the right decision for for me and for everybody and as i felt the time like that and that's why i did it you still feel it's the right decision you know i miss my work actually i have to say you know it's you know it was it i really enjoyed it but uh but at the same time i i I don't regret it.

1:26:16That's the part. I think I made a decision and I do other things now which make me grow as well as a person for the future. I have time to finish my coaching badges. I have time to finish my PhD thesis. I have time to spend more time with my kids. At the moment you're lost to football. and you've got so much experience so much knowledge you've gleaned and learned so much do you do you want to get back in you know i would say that if the right opportunity and at the right time comes yes and um because as i said i i really enjoyed it and and of course you know football will always remain a big part of my of my life of my passion and as well you know I would like to share the knowledge I gained during my career as a player and then in those three years in the opposite side of playing field but as I said it needs to be always as I said in circumstances where you feel like this is the right project, this is a nice project this is really worth investing all my time and energy and and and in which position and how you know i i enjoy coaching for example that's something i really love i can actually see myself coaching well because because it's one one thing which i really you know when i look at games i i always look at the strategies the the space the you know the plays the how other you know managers do different things and and i always try to think you know what would i do in that situation how would i do it would it work would it not work you know stuff like that and and um so that's that i have to say it's it's something i i uh i sort of enjoy that'll be the headline people now take from this whole conversation petr czech wants to be a manager that petr has been a really really interesting conversation we finish with some quickfire questions the first one is which three non-negotiable behaviors do you and the people around you need to buy into i think first would be definitely the effort because like if you if you don't put the effort in anything then you don't even start so it might go together with this commitment like you either committed or not so if you commit then you know and the attitude how you do it because if you have the commitment and if you have the attitude then you have the discipline as well so it comes all together but i would say the effort always comes first like if you can't put the hundred percent effort and the commitment into the case i don't think you get too far so the three were effort commitment and attitude attitude what advice would you give to a teenage petter just starting out i would um i think the the the advice I would give applies to anything it's to make sure that you don't waste a day of your life because the life is too short to waste it and if you want to achieve something you need to use every time to you know to to do meaningful things to improve yourself or your position in in whatever you want to achieve if you could go back to one moment in your life what would it be and why you know as as as many things has happened to me during the life good things bad things i always say i wouldn't change a thing because um i i you know what i would i would go back into that moment when we won the champions league you know that feeling the great feeling of achievement satisfaction chasing the trophy for so long and and being so close and yet so far many times and that that's the ultimate best feeling you you have so that's probably uh yeah that that that's probably one because you you know that that joy was was special but uh but as i mean you know there are many things you do and you look back and you think if i could change that but it may it might change the way you are after and you might not have achieved you know the other stuff so as I said you know as with good things bad things I wouldn't change anything what's your greatest strength what's your biggest weakness the greatest strength I would say my consistency the the the discipline and consistency that's that's what uh drives me every day because there are many things I don't like to do but I know I have to do them I do them so so I would say this is my this is this This is the mental strength in terms of being consistent with my emotions as well.

1:31:21The final question, Petra. What's your one golden rule to live a high-performance life? The consistency, yeah. Again, I think it's the inner engine. Because if you have the inner engine, you have the consistency and you have the discipline. and then it allows you to improve every day.

1:31:50Damien. Jake. A conversation with a footballer, but not about football. I mean, I love that idea of being a kid in goal, panicking in case it goes 1-0. It does go 1-0 and then it releases him. And this idea of playing with freedom that he managed to get from having to score in his head at 0-0 regardless of what was going on, I think was fascinating because again it's a reminder that we see these bulletproof people these world-class performers these elite athletes this is Petr Cech in Gove one of the best teams in the world he must be fine yet even he's had to put in place certain techniques and tricks to fool himself so he can perform at his best and if he needs to do it we all need to be doing it yeah the stuff around process is something that any of us whether we like football or not whether we admire Peter Cech, whether we're Chelsea fans, it almost doesn't matter.

1:32:41The process stuff is applicable to every single one of us listening. And it was a reminder, you know, when Petr spoke about that head injury, it's a reminder that the process is also there for you when times are tough. You know, it was following that process that meant they questioned whether this was the end of his career. Then it was how many months will he be out? How many seasons will he not play again for? And, you know, within just a few weeks, he was back training and playing. And I thought it was fascinating and then to sort of have the the bravery to go upstairs at Chelsea to become a senior member of the of the team in the boardroom I loved when he spoke about um winning the Champions League was better not as a player and it reminds us that you know we put these players on a pedestal but there's hundreds of amazing people behind them who aren't earning the money getting the accolades driving the cars but it matters just as much to them yeah so it goes to the very heart of these clubs are part of the representative community they represent people and i think when we can tap into that sense of purpose we've heard it so often of getting that sense of alignment paul barber spoke about it at brighton tracy neville spoke about it representing women in england and removing the glass ceiling when she was the head coach of the england netball team that sense of purpose and recognizing the community represent and how you go about winning is an incredibly powerful life force and petter is got that interesting perspective of having been on the playing end of it and then on the leadership end of that and he recognizes that it's far more fulfilling to represent the people that you that are part of your tribe and just to tell the story to people listening to this you know when we stopped recording he just sort of volunteered why he came on the podcast didn't he it's the first time he's spoken since he left chelsea he's not discussed any of that stuff before and he said it's because we're in this world where it's all short term it's all quick sound bites it's all immediate reaction it's all opinion he said this is a platform for long-term conversation for deep discussion for empathy being put ahead of opinion and i think for petter to understand the value of these conversations fills me with real joy yeah you know and again for people that are listening to it this is an edited version of a three-hour conversation petter was the epitome of no shortcuts whether that was his success in his playing career, his success in his subsequent role in football administration, or whether it was making sure this podcast was as interesting as possible.

1:35:08No shortcut seems to be his whole mantra. Love that. I absolutely loved the conversation with Petter. And if you want to watch it as well as just listen to it, you can do so right now. Head to High Performance on YouTube and join the millions of people who watch our conversations there rather than just listen to them. As always, shoes thanks to you for growing and sharing this podcast among your community. Please continue to spread the learnings you're taking from these conversations. Remember, there is no secret. It is all there for you. So chase world-class basics. Don't get high on your own supply.

1:35:44Remain humble, curious and empathetic. And I'll see you soon.

1:35:57Thank you.

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