"It is a fantastic place. I loved being shown round the ground and Chelsea Village. This is the place for me and when the transfer is finally sealed I will open a bottle of vintage wine to celebrate."

He went on,  "I have hidden my desire to move to The Premiership as quickly as possible and I told Rennes that from the day I signed for them. Everyone who has ever known me or worked with me understands what it means to me to move to England."

Cech says that "I would be very disappointed if the transfer failed now. I would say to myself this chance may never come around again. Now it all depends on the decision of Rennes and I hope they can agree terms. I'm happy everything has gone well, but I'm not celebrating yet. The transfer is on a good footing but I will open a good bottle of wine when it is definitely closed." There seems, therefore, that everybody is in agreement that Cech will open a bottle of something expensive, when he signs.

Cech went on to express some relief that Chelsea persisted. "It's true that last week it looked like everything was over. But Chelsea have showed how much they want me and made the step forward saying they will wait until summer. I didn't want to risk moving before the European Championships. This solution stopped discussions. I'm very satisfied now. Even when I went to Rennes, I didn't hide that my dream is to play in the Premiership and now that is going to go through."

And he played up his quality. "I have not spoken to Claudio Ranieri but my agent told me what he said. He said he wanted me and his faith in my abilities helped make up my mind. I have had interest from some other big clubs like Barcelona and Inter, but in this case I feel that the interest is much more concrete and real. That is the reason why I want to go to London."