Petr Cech bid a tearful farewell to football after Arsenal's Europa League defeat against former club Chelsea .
Cech is widely tipped to return to the Blues in a sporting director capacity this summer as he hangs up his gloves after a glittering career.
But he put any conflict of interests to one side with an impressive display despite conceding four goals in a miserable night for the Gunners in Baku.
Cech made several smart saves to keep the ball down and insisted he was proud of the way he bowed out - but he was reduced to tears after the game after speaking to BT Sport.
His 20-year career came to an unfortunate end as his dreams of bowing out on top with major silverware came crashing down before his eyes.
Cech said: "I'm proud not only of myself, obviously, I'm also proud of the way I played today, because when you play your last career game in a final there is a lot of pressure, obviously.
"There's a lot of speculation and all the things about Chelsea, so I had to perform and I have to say I've done everything so I can look back and have no regrets about today.
"This is the most disappointing thing. I wanted to lift the trophy and then sit down and think because up until the 30th June I am still an Arsenal player.
"Until that point, obviously I won't decide on anything."
Despite their crushing defeat, Cech has assured Arsenal supporters they will come back stronger and they did not deserve to end their campaign empty handed.
Cech added: "The fact we worked so hard over the whole year and we have nothing, I think it's something that this group of players probably don't deserve.
"Behind the scenes, the coaching staff, the people who come every day, the supporters, they can't see behind the scenes how much work has been done this season.
"It's easy to say, 'OK, we finished empty handed, we have no cup, we lost this final 4-1', but I can assure everyone at Arsenal that the work we have done during this season, next season this team will be stronger."
