London: Chelsea's Petr Cech has defended his team-mates against accusations of player-power and said a vocal dressing room has bred success at the Premier League club. A training ground exchange between manager Rafael Benitez and captain John Terry in the wake of last week's 2-0 Premier League defeat at Manchester City led to allegations that Chelsea's interim boss was being undermined by senior players.
This preceded an extraordinary week in which Benitez castigated hostile fans and criticised club officials for his 'interim' job title, a move that increased the focus on the behaviour of Chelsea's senior players. "We had a lot of success thanks to the honesty and open mind everyone has in the dressing room," goalkeeper Cech was quoted as saying by British media.
"Everybody should have a chance to express an opinion and if the players are not happy, it is not the case that we say 'unlucky mate, we will carry on, you pick yourself up'. No. When we see something is going wrong, people have the right to express themselves and say 'we think this is wrong, we should improve that, we need to try to find a different solution'.
"Obviously we have only one boss, that is the manager, and it is up to him if he wants to listen to what the players say or find his own way to go through. It helps because communication is a very big part of a football club. It is important for the coach to know the feedback, to do more or less, but there is only one boss and it is up to him what to do."
Benitez has stated he will leave the fourth-placed Premier League club at the end of the season, paving the way for European champions Chelsea to appoint their 10th manager in the last nine years. Cech, however, defended the club and aimed a swipe at London rivals Arsenal, saying instability was a price worth paying for success. "You can argue with a lot of things but in the same period of time we won more or less the same number of trophies as Manchester United," he said.
"They had one manager, we had eight, and we won the same trophies. We had the Champions League, there are so many positives. Arsenal had the same manager and it is a long time since they won something. Maybe if you asked them if they would rather have 10 managers and six trophies I don't know what they would say but it is always relative. We do it our way, the other clubs do it their way and it seems to work so far, so long may it continue."
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