It is 26 years since a goalkeeper other than Petr Cech got his hands on the League Cup for Chelsea, but Kevin Hitchcock believes his old club have finally found somebody to permanently fill Cech’s gloves.
Djordje Petrovic worked under Hitchcock for 16 months at New England Revolution and is set to make his first-ever Wembley appearance against Liverpool in the final of the Carabao Cup on Sunday – only six months after arriving at Chelsea from Major League Soccer in a £14 million deal.
Hitchcock watched from the substitutes’ bench in 1998, when Ed de Goey kept a clean sheet to help Chelsea to their last League Cup success without Cech. Since then, the Blues have won the competition three times with Cech playing in all three finals.
“Chelsea have been crying out for someone since Petr Cech,” said Hitchock, who is goalkeeper coach at New England Revolution. “They’ve been crying out for a solid, solid number one. Before Petr was Carlo Cudicini. They’re big gloves to fill and I don’t think Chelsea have done very well in that department for the last six or seven years.
“Djordje does remind me of Petr, actually. Petr was a fantastic goalkeeper and he won a lot of games for Chelsea. Without a shadow of a doubt, Djordje can be a really top goalkeeper for a long time as well.”
Chelsea’s recruitment team, along with head of goalkeeping Ben Roberts, had started tracking Petrovic while he was still playing in the Serbian league for FK Cukaricki, earmarking him as a player to follow.
Hitchcock is not the only former Chelsea goalkeeper who has had a big impact on Petrovic’s career path. Ross Turnbull, who is the club’s goalkeeping scouting manager, was tasked with watching every one of the Serbian’s games for New England Revolution once it became clear Kepa Arrizabalaga was joining Real Madrid on loan.
And it was a former Liverpool goalkeeper, Brad Friedel, who Chelsea made a final check with as part of their due diligence before beating competition from Nottingham Forest, Brentford and Nantes to sign Petrovic.
Hitchcock, who watched video footage of Petrovic playing in Serbia before recommending New England Revolution sign him in 2022, said: “I look for certain things in a goalkeeper and certain things I can work with to improve them and make them better.
“Djordje had this ability to use a plyometric jump. So I knew I…