Premier League: Liverpool among Chelsea reserve's six options

Petr Cech won't be short of suitors if he is available for transfer

Michael Lintorn explores six clubs who might be interested in signing Petr Cech in the winter transfer window...

With Thibaut Courtois an ever-present as Chelsea have made a Premier League start so daunting that they have assumed 1.564/7 favouritism in Betfair's outright market, Petr Cech is thought to be preparing for the end of his triumphant ten-and-a-half year stay in west London.

He said: "With Euro 2016 and the national team in mind, there is no time for me to sit on the bench and not play. I have not spoken to anybody at the club but if the situation does not start to improve for me then I will want to solve it." If the Blues let him leave in January, we've found six solutions to his search for regular football...

Liverpool
Simon Mignolet is shedding followers rather than gaining them in his second season at Liverpool and, despite ceaseless speculation, they still haven't brought in Victor Valdes to compete with him, so there might be a vacancy at Anfield, though Chelsea would be reluctant to allow Cech to fill it.

Real Madrid
The Real Madrid goalkeeping situation is bizarre. Former first choice Diego Lopez was sacrificed this summer, but replacement Keylor Navas has been entrusted with just one start. Iker Casillas is back in favour, yet less popular with fans than at any prior point in his Bernabeu existence, so his future is unclear.

Roma
Morgan De Sanctis has done a sterling job since moving to the Italian capital in 2013, with it not entirely by chance that the Giallorossi's rebirth has coincided with increased solidity between the sticks. However, he is 37 and currently sidelined, so savvy transfer operator Walter Sabatini might be open to adding another custodian.

Schalke
The Bundesliga's best of the rest - if you still view Borussia Dortmund as part of a big two - have finished in the top four eight times in the last decade so should near guarantee Champions League football, and there is a familiar face there now in former Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo.

Zenit St Petersburg
Another of Cech's old bosses is currently employed by Russia's most reliable source of Champions League competitiveness, with Andre Villas-Boas steering Zenit St Petersburg back to the top of the Russian Premier League. They are also seen as fairly generous paymasters.

Plzen
It would involve a hefty pay cut and a lot less glamour, but Cech does potentially have the "Daniel Agger option" at his disposal of returning home while still at his peak. Cech was at Plzen as a kid before they got good, so representing them professionally would be neat career completion, and they are European regulars.