Christophe Lollichon was a key member of the backroom staff at Chelsea during the Roman Abramovich era AMA/Corbis via Getty Images

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Christophe Lollichon on his problem with Courtois, signing Kepa and Mendy, and his hope for Penders

By Liam TwomeyJune 25, 2026 Updated 2:34 am EDT

In the first part of an exclusive two-part interview, former Chelsea goalkeeping coach Christophe Lollichon discussed his working relationship with Petr Cech at both Rennes and Stamford Bridge, and the preparation that went into the Czech’s unforgettable heroics on the run to Champions League glory with the west London club in 2012.

This is part two, where he reflects on Cech moving across the capital to rivals Arsenal and his own role in the Chelsea careers of Thibaut Courtois, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Edouard Mendy, and gives his thoughts on Mike Penders — the club’s big hope for the future.

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The Champions League triumph in Munich was the peak of the Cech-Lollichon working partnership, but the landscape was already shifting.

The previous year, Lollichon had received a call from a contact in Belgium about a teenage goalkeeper who was already starting for Genk. “One week later I was in Genk and saw this guy, and I said, ‘Wow, he has something special’,” he recalls. “So I said to (Chelsea technical director) Michael Emenalo and Roman (Abramovich, the owner): ‘We have maybe the next Cech in Belgium’.”

Chelsea duly signed Thibaut Courtois in July 2011 before sending him to Spain for the first of what became three consecutive season-long loans at Atletico Madrid. Lollichon became very familiar with the flights between London and the Spanish capital as he played an active role in the youngster’s development.

Successions are rarely painless. Lollichon says Jose Mourinho — with whom he admits he had a “very difficult relationship” — decided to recall Courtois from loan after Cech conceded a goal to Javier Pastore in a Champions League quarter-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes in April 2014, and believes the Chelsea manager should have handled it better.

“He never spoke with Petr the following season to tell him, ‘OK, Petr, I will start the season with Thibaut because he’s the future and I need to prepare the future’,” Lollichon says of Mourinho. “He never spoke with him. Petr is not stupid, I’m not stupid. Thibaut started the first game against Burnley and played very well, because he was ready to play.

Christophe Lollichon, Petr Cech (centre) and Thibaut Courtois during Chelsea’s pre-season in 2014 (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

“Thibaut respected Petr a lot. We spent a fantastic season (together). It was very difficult to see Petr on the bench behind me, but we had two of the three best goalkeepers in the world. Petr was fantastic professionally, never changed his attitude and he helped Thibaut.”

In recognition of his stellar service, Cech was allowed to leave Chelsea, signing for London rivals Arsenal in the summer of 2015. Lollichon says Abramovich blocked him from joining Cech in making the move across London. “I was ready to go to Arsenal, but I respected the boss’ decision,” he says.

As well as his long-standing relationship with Cech, Lollichon was keenly aware of the mounting issues between himself and Courtois.

“We didn’t share the same view on work and the concept of effort,” he says. “Thibaut is one of the best talents I saw in my life. But however talented you may be, to make the most of your potential and realise it, you must put in a great deal of effort every day.

“As far as I’m concerned, Thibaut could have been at the very top of his game for 10 or 15 years. Of course, he’s one of the best, but he plays too comfortably. I reckon he could be more dominant. He really does have all the qualities needed for that.

“Back when we were working together, and especially after Petr left, there were certain training approaches he didn’t want to pursue. It was difficult, the tension grew and, in the end, it was impossible to continue to work together.”

Courtois and Lollichon did not always see eye to eye at Chelsea (Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

Lollichon moved away from first-team coaching duties in 2016 to focus on Chelsea’s goalkeeper recruitment and loans department. It was in this role that he contributed to the search for Courtois’ replacement when the Belgian forced a move to Real Madrid two years later.

“I gave (then Chelsea manager) Maurizio Sarri my selection of goalkeepers (to replace Courtois),” he says. “The first name in the document was Petr to come back — not because he’s my friend, at this time we didn’t have leaders in the dressing room. Petr is a f***ing legend at Chelsea and I asked him, ‘Petr, how is your body?’. He had a check-up with a specialist and the specialist said, ‘OK, you have two good years in front of you’. So Petr was the first.

“Kepa was on that list, but not at the top. I had a meeting with Sarri and when I said Petr, he said no. Good start.

“During the conversation, he said, ‘Do you know Kepa?’. I said, ‘Maurizio, he’s on my list but not among my favourites’. He said, ‘I played against him, he made a fantastic game’. I saw the game. He made a few spectacular saves. I said, ‘Maurizio, this guy is not adapted to your model of play’, but he just remembered the saves he made against him.”

Chelsea ended up paying €80million (£71.6m; $91m) to buy Arrizabalaga out of his contract at Bilbao’s Athletic Club, making him the world’s most expensive goalkeeper and handing him a seven-year contract. “Eighty million!” Lollichon exclaims. “I told the club, with all due respect to Kepa, that this cost did not reflect my understanding of the market. I was told that Sarri was insisting (on him).”

Kepa Arrizabalaga struggled at Chelsea (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)

Arrizabalaga’s struggles left Sarri replacement Frank Lampard looking for a more reliable goalkeeper in the summer of 2020, and Lollichon had an obscure name in mind.

“I had started to observe Mendy two years before,” he says. “He played in the second division in France, in Reims. Petr was at Arsenal and I sent him a message saying, ‘Petr, look at the goalkeeper in Reims. I think he’s a good guy’. Petr observed a little bit. He (Cech) was still a player but we had a lot of conversations and I continued on my side.”

Lollichon says he recommended that his former club Rennes sign Mendy from Reims in August 2019. The following summer, he and Cech — by this time back at Chelsea as technical and performance advisor — pitched the Senegal international as the solution to the Arrizabalaga problem.

“Frank was a little bit surprised, the directors of the club too,” Lollichon says. “In the end, they said, ‘OK, you can start the process’.