"My Chelsea debut was in a pre-season match against Omagh in Northern Ireland. I came on in the second half, and with my first touch I got knocked down by a big Irish striker, hitting my nose," Cudicini recalls to FourFourTwo. "I was half-asleep on the floor with the physio and the doctors talking to me, and I couldn't understand a single word. Gus Poyet came over and said, 'Hey, Carlo, welcome to British football', which still makes me laugh."
"I recovered quickly enough and made my official debut in a Champions League qualifier at Skonto in Latvia, playing the last 15 minutes of the second leg, then I made my league debut on the final day of the season. I'd arrived."
"After spending nearly the whole of the 1999/00 season on the bench, behind De Goey and sometimes elder statesman Kevin Hitchcock, too, the Italian then started to play more regularly after a full year in England."
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