Cudicini vows to stave-off Cech challenge
Italian Cudicini has a fight on his hands to keep his place when Cech arrives from France in the summer, but he declared his intent on Wednesday night when he returned from a groin injury and gave an excellent display in his team’s 1-0 Champions League first leg victory at Stuttgart.
Apart from Cudicini Chelsea have Neil Sullivan and Marco Ambrosio on their books, and they are determined to ensure Cech has to fight for his place.
“He is coming here but it doesn’t mean he has to play,” said Cudicini. “It will be a challenge for the jersey, but that is normal.
“Everybody was saying Chelsea needed a new goalkeeper but I don’t think that is true because in Marco and Sully we have two good goalkeepers.
“Chelsea have a new philosophy so everyone has to fight hard to play.
“The club have to look forward and he has a very good future in front of him because he is young.”
Having gone off injured during the FA Cup defeat at Arsenal and then missed the Barclaycard Premiership defeat by the Gunners, Cudicini was delighted to return to action for the Champions League tie and he believes Chelsea have taken a big step towards the quarter-finals.
He said: “When you don’t play it is frustrating because you always want to play these kind of games, but when you are injured you cannot do anything about it.
“I had a small tear in the groin. I wanted to play in the FA Cup game but maybe I made a mistake because I got injured again. I wanted to be sure I could play in this game.
“I felt fine and we decided the day before that I was fit to play.
“I didn’t want to kick a lot with my right leg because I wanted to make sure I lasted the game so my only worry was for goal kicks, but we had other players who could take them.
Meanwhile, Jens Lehmann has received the support of two more powerful allies in his bid to prove that he and not Oliver Kahn should be first choice for Germany.
Former Germany goalkeeper Andreas Kopke and Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger are the latest to advocate that Lehmann can be a starter in the national team.
The tension between Kahn and Lehmann has mounted into a public spat in recent weeks, to the extent that some are wondering if both can be included in the same squad.
And a spokesman for the German Football Federation (DFB) confirmed yesterday Rudi Voller will visit London next week, although he would not confirm or deny whether the national coach had planned a meeting with Lehmann.
Kahn made a blunder which cost Bayern Munich in midweek when he let Roberto Carlos’ free-kick squirm under his body for an equaliser in the Champions League.
It was reminiscent of the fumble which allowed Ronaldo to open the scoring in the 2002 World Cup final.
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