Arsenal legend David Seaman believes Petr Cech still has plenty of time at the top level despite a poor penalty record which the former England goalkeeper describes as "frightening."
The ex-Gunners shot stopper has failed to save any of the penalties he has faced since joining Arsenal in 2013, going the wrong way 10 times out of 13, and Seaman suggests that the Czech should consider changing his current method if he has any hope of improving the record.
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Seaman has the best penalty save percentage of any Premier League goalkeeper (31.8%) who has faced at least 20 penalties and has offered to help Cech with advice on spot kicks if he wants it.
"He needs to call me up! Trust me, he can call me anytime and I’ll give him some secret recipes," said Seaman.
"It’s frightening [his penalty record]. I don’t know what he’s thinking. He’s obviously got a method that he used but [when] I used my method I would guess the right way a lot more than Petr’s done. In a normal game penalty takers are specialised and won’t just stay to one side. They look at their form just as much as a goalkeeper would.
"He’s getting closer [to the end of his career] but I wouldn’t say he’s coming towards the end. He’s still performing with quality and there’s no doubt about him being No.1 at all. We saw up at Man City what he’s capable of. He’s still doing it in the big games but we’re not winning as many games as we used to."
54-year-old Seaman admits that he was offered a goalkeeping coach role at Arsenal shortly before he retired in 2004 but hasn't been approached by the Gunners since. He says that he has ambitions of a part-time advisory role for goalkeepers and feels that he wants to give back his wealth of shot stopping knowledge to the next batch of young goalies.
"I got asked before I left Arsenal to become the goalkeeping coach but I wasn’t ready for that [at the time]. Since then I’ve been asked by other clubs but not by Arsenal," revealed Seaman.
"I wouldn’t want to be full-time. I’d rather be a mentor type where I can have chats with people. I don’t just want to leave goalkeeping without giving anything back because I’ve got everything a goalkeeper needs to know about. I’ve had great highs and great lows, learning how to deal with them and one day I’ll pass it onto the next generation."
David Seaman was speaking on behalf of TAG Heuer to promote the TAG Heuer Premier League Pressure Test. TAG Heuer is the Official Timekeeping Partner of the Premier League.
