Wojciech Szczesny

Just saw that he started for Juve in the league today with Buffon on the bench. Seems he is going to be more than a backup. Or is Buffon fucked or something?

NO WEā€™RE BLOODY NOT ALL HAPPY!

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Saw this earlier today with the same sentiment you express. This Szczesny ā€˜adorationā€™ gets a bit out of hand imo. He is a good, solid goalkeeper, but not the second coming of Lev Yashin. If Arsenal do their homework we should easily find a keeper of his quality and thus aim higher.

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Lol Sneezy wasnā€™t that goos for us Cech has been miles better. And to echo the sentiments of SDgooner when Cech is done it will be easy to find a keeper if Szcezcnyā€™s level, probably a lot better too.

Cech was done 2 years ago. Should have been replaced with Woj, who had improved in all areas as a GK, last summer if Wenger had any sense.

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If Wenger had any sense he bought a good, younger goalkeeper in stead of 33-year old Cech when he finally axed Szczesny and this discussion would have never taken place in the first place.

The logic with signing Cech and having Woj go out on loan was completely reasonable. Last summer was the point where it was meant to pay off with Woj entering his best years now having matured and improved

I get thereā€™s a urge to fill the team with young talent but GK is not a place where I want that unless itā€™s clearly world class. Of which thereā€™s been no stand out GKs since Woj left on loan

Sending Szczesny on loan was more a consequence of not being able to sell him. Like we havenā€™t been able to do with a lot of players.

After 150 games in the first team you donā€™t really send a player out of loan to test him and let him gain experience I would thinkā€¦

Pretty much every club of similar or bigger stature has found a very good to great under-24 goalkeepers, but now the market is dry? They should be able to find someone.

No it was not. It was an attempt to force him to mature and improve his focus. Him being sent to Italy seemed deliberate rather than us offloading him to whoever asked first, Woj acknowledged this in an interview too.

In Woj case the loan made plenty of sense - IIRC his ability as a GK was never in doubt aside from a few senseless moments. Wasnā€™t it the smoking incident that triggered Wengerā€™s desire to loan him out and improve maturity?

Name namesā€¦Very few actual GK talents out there that were acquirable by Arsenal and better than Woj in the last 3 years

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In the eight games he has played since Buffon got injured, he has conceded just one goal. One!!! Iā€™m never going to be over this guy!

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Heā€™d be exposed by our defence too

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He won Golden Gloves here tooā€¦

Heā€™s also the last Arsenal goalkeeper to save a penalty for us ā€“ back in 2013. Nearly 5 bloody years ago

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:joy:

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Goalkeepers concede less when working with tactically sound managers and good, well-organized defensive units?

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Sure, but he is still making some decent saves, whereas weā€™re pretty generous with what we let into the back of the net.

Wenger canā€™t tell his pecker from his a-hole.

For me there must have been a personal bust between the two. The demotion of Szczezza doesnā€™t make any other sense to me, especially since Wozza is one of the best keepers you can wish for and thatā€™s now confirmed.

The group influences the individual. When others around you perform well, you tend to do so too (thatā€™s unless you are shit).

Wojciech was never the problem within the Arsenal squad, unlike for example Almunia who for a long time was the weakest link.

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Iā€™m not so sure that is my recollection - I would agree with the spirit of the point, but Woj was prone to some pretty bone-headed plays and pen concessions, etc. - he was very young and had promise, but I donā€™t think there were too many tears shed when we he finally left - there was always the risk at his age that he would still come good if he got his head straight (and yes, having proper management/coaching helps there massively).

He made mistakes but he was a keeper with a lot of ability, hence the comparison with Almunia who was not only error-prone but also simply a terrible keeper who godknows how (#thankswenger) ended up in the same team with the likes of Henry, Pires, Fabregas, Van Persie etc.