Arsene Wenger has backed Wojciech Szczesny to have a great season at the Emirates but admits he’s not yet closed the door on the possibility of bringing in another goalkeeper before the end of the transfer window.
The 23-year-old stopper was benched in the final third of last season in favour of Lukasz Fabianski but regained his place and form in the final weeks following an injury to his compatriot.
Despite a nervy showing on the opening day against Aston Villa, Arsene Wenger revealed why Szczesny still has his confidence.
“He is over the problems he had last season. He had a dip in form, but has come back at the end of the season with good form and a good run, overall for me he is back to his best.
“We forget he is a boy who is only in his third season in the Premier League. He is only 23, for a goalkeeper that is very young.
“He was third then last season fourth in the Premier League, for such a young goalkeeper, that is not a bad achievement.
“I am sure you will see a great season from Szczesny, and I rate Fabianski very highly, which is why I think we have two very good goalkeepers.”
Linked with the likes of Iker Casillas, Asmir Begovic and Julio Cesar, and with an offer rejected for Valencia’s Vicente Guaita, it’s an open secret that the Gunners have been scouring Europe for a new keeper following the departure of Vito Mannone to Sunderland
Aware that he’s just one injury away from having young Argentine Damian Martinez as back-up the boss admitted that a new custodian is on his shopping list.
“When Mannone went, we were open to having a third goalkeeper, because if something happens, you are quickly very short.
“We have Emi Martinez as number three, but he has no experience at all in the Premier League, that is why we always had an eye open, and this position is not completely closed yet.”
Perhaps Stuart Taylor or Richard Wright are available…the way things are going Arseblog News wouldn’t bet against it.
I wouldn’t even rule out William Gallas.
Is he any good in goal though??
Lets get Paul Scholes, i remember he was pretty good with goal line saves using his hands, even without gloves.
So is Suarez as I recall…hmmm perhaps we’ve solved the mystery of why we were pursuing him finally.
if a new goalkeeper is coming, either he gonna be like 35 years old or around 20 years old, ‘coz i don’t think any goalkeeper in his prime is gonna be happy to be 3rd choice, the reason why mannoe left…
Graham Stack?
I heard rumors that Mata’s dad was a keeper many years ago. Maybe, that’s why he came to the game?
Maybe Almunia is coming back to join Flamini and Nicky B
That would be (and quite literally) the biggest WTF moment in Arsenal history for me.
Can you imagine that? Brains would literally explode eveywhere.
It such a thing happens, all bets are off.
Actually, if they even consider bringing Almunia back, I’d bet my house on Hleb’s return.
*everywhere, sorry.
I’m sure he’s interested but as we’ve seen it has to be just right and he won’t pay anything over what he considers “value” so we won’t get anybody. He’s already said he thinks signings will upset the balance of the squad, so we won’t get anybody in. Nothing’s going to happen. And I’m sure he’ll blame levy for stalling on the bale deal so we can’t try and sign three Real Madrid players we’re never going to get. What a complete and utter fucking mess.
To be fair he actually said ‘more than three signings can upset the squad’
Does that mean he wont sign more than 1 more, if any?!?!
Watch his press conference from today – Wenger was directly asked, ‘Are you close to getting any deals done?’ He smiled and simply said, ‘Yes.’
Sanogo is obviously not threatening the first-team spots, so he will hardly upset the makeup of the team, and Flamini has already played for us – his integration should be quick. I’d still expect 2 or 3 more.
He probably was thinking about Flamini
He said it’s a risk, but can also work well. Was also saying that to answer a question on spuds.
So won’t make too much of it.
Thats why we need Suarez blog. We know he could pull off some big save in front of goal.
Brilliant
Plan B should be Scholes
i hear bendtner is pretty good at ensuring no1 scores
Missed a trick with Steklenburg. I’m jealous Fulham got him. Probably Romas’ best player. Think he went cheap, and would have been old enough not to stand in Szcz’s way for the future. Dayum
Surprised me we didn’t make a move for him too but then maybe he wanted to be guaranteed first choice.
Yeah and looking at his injury record people would’ve blamed that on Arsene as well. From what little i have seen of him, i’d prefer someone like Courtois.
Do you think Chelsea are going to sell Cech’s replacement, don’t be so fucking clueless.
Seaman on free?
It would help if he had a bit more cover. How the hell are we losing out to teams like Wolfsburg (Gustavo) and Atletico (Alderweireld)?!
Because Wenger is dithering over absolutely every potential deal and Gazidis doesn’t want to overrule him.
Anybody knows where Almunia is right now?
I am at Watford, and doing quite well, thank you…
Actually you are and good for you! How is it having decent GK coach?
why don’t you come over, we could hav some tea and biscuits and a new contract maybe?
Because I will not be working with Gerry Peyton who, is a muppet
Taylor? Wright? I’m waiting for Shay Given.
And not even a Sebastian Frey link?! The press have got lazy this summer.
Can someone lock the toilet in AW office & tell him he can use it when he actually makes a signing. If its so infuriating for a fan like me to see the depleted team & the unused cash reserves, what will it be for the players, especially in a difficult match, when he is looking to the bench for support?
Newsnow still doesn’t even have 1 rumour about spotting any new players around, shows how close we are to signing a new player. Don’t understand how they could working hard but not able to sign any of the targets. Lock the toilet door I say!
95.500.000 £ worth of signings are watching the Europa League draw right now 😀
Wenger has just 3 days to prove all the doubters wrong. He definitely had “it” when he came to Arsenal but now he seems to have lost it.
Tick tock Wenger, tick tock. The fury of the fans awaits you.
Cesar’s been waiting for our call, like an ugly girl that got chatted up in a dark club.
former players always want to come back. hmmm. smell something cooking
Already cooked
Wanna cook?
If you lock his toilet door, then he’s just gonna carry on pissing over us fans
Lehmann was at the stadium on tuesday..
We won’t sign anyone wenger doesn’t know the market and never has that’s why we need David Dean back, it’s like a child going to a antiques auction wondering why everyone is outbidding him, he thought that £3:50 he bid on a fabriche would be enough.
He made a £3 bid at ten to, now where’s my prize?
Problem with Schezzer is he makes you believe for one moment then all that goes down the drain after like 2 matches. consistency is key lad. Good luck holding onto no.1!
If Almunia, Fabianski and Chezzer have all failed to develop at the club should we not be looking at the GK coach? It’s the same with the defence, no matter what combination of players we put in there we shipped goals year on year, it wasn’t until the last bit of last season when we changed our shape/cavalier approach that our defender looked solid.
Surely this summer has proved to Ivan that Wengers autonomy on all football matters isn’t healthy. I don’t suppose he has the balls or know how to change things though.
I agree coaching and management play a huge role. Look at Fergusson a million titles. Mourinho brilliant record. The most important transfers are your manager and head of coaching.
Worse part is , if he’s waiting until the last second , the selling club won’t want to sell because it won’t give them any time to get a replacement in ! These are the worst transfer tactics I’ve ever heard of .. How can spurs spend 90 mil and we can’t ? He’s now talking about keeping bendtner because podolski is injured .. If we play bendtner for even 3 minutes I’m buying myself a black scarf …. If we need to fill a position why not get Ba from Chelsea ? Yesterday they said they would only sell… Read more »
While I think Arsene has mismanaged the club this summer, surely experience has taught us never to use Spurs as a marker for how things should be done. Just because they spent 90 million doesn’t mean they are 90m better. I remember everyone getting worried when they signed Palacious, Bentley etc and rolling out the usual ‘Spurs will finish above Arsenal nonsense’. How many of us know how good most of the players are that they bought? I doubt many of us have watched them enough to develop an informed opinion. In sure Gervinho looked a world better if you… Read more »
So clubs are buying early to replace people they havent sold yet, and still they will not have time to find replacements…errr….
Buy when everyone’s selling, Sell when everyone’s buying 😉
Former players (inc. NB52!) coming back….we need a goalkeeper…..Lehmann was at the emirates the other day watching the game….I’m putting 2 and 2 together and hoping my answer is wrong
Jans Lehman- Ja Mr Wenger, I have been expecting your call. Ja,I come back. But only if you make me no.1 keeper and you bring back Almunia and make him clean my boots every morning.
Jans Lehman, the evil (yet cheap) impersonator of Jens Lehmann.
Or LANS Lehmann as he’ll be known on here…
ljumberg bennis bergkamp were at emirates plotting for come back as they train with first team players
Deflated…I think you’ll find it’s “tree-fiddy” and not £3:50
Is John Lukic available?
If Szsc is back to his best we really need a new keeper.
NOTHING WILL HAPPEN
*FUCKING IGNORES WENGER
What ever it is can’t see anybody letting anyone special leave now unless we bid stupid money and its not looking likely but he still has three days one can hope.
Can’t wait until the window closes,we won’t have signed anyone and we can focus all our attention on getting Wenger out.
I want Tottenham to score first and see Arsenal fans go crazy at the stupid WENGER / doin notin with 7.5 million salary / to be Sacked after
Haha
wenger was talking about players are expensive , expensive,
What about 7.5 million for a useless manager ?
I think you lost all of us at “I want Tottenham to score first”.
Go ‘support’ some other club.
Not necessarily Gooner in Spain, as Nick Hornby writes in Feverpitch, the ideal game is one where you are 2 nil down and win 3-2. The first 5-2 was more enjoyable because we were 2 down, if we’d gone 5-0 up it wouldn’t have been so dramatic. I can’t wait to see how we score 5 this year.
Personally I’d like to see them go ahead twice, so that when we eventually lay down the law the look on their gormless little faces will be all the sweeter.
So I can expect to see you cheering for Tottenham until were 0-1?
I admit a good comeback is always, always satisfying (arguably more satisfying than an ‘ordinary’ victory), but statistics tell us going down 0-1 gives us fewer chances of getting points from a match.
So if you want to cheer for an exciting match, by all means go fot it; me I’ll be cheering for Arsenal for the entirety of the match.
Come on now, we’re just having a little fun at the spuds’ expense. Lighten up!
The sad bit of this window to most arsenal fans around the world is the sad realization that with all our current strengths we are happy to aim for fourth. It’s our ambition, all we aim for now. From having united as our number one rival to having Spurs as our key rival. 4th or bust ladies.
I’m guessing he ^ hasn’t been an Arsenal fan long, who in their right mind would want the scum to even get one goal let alone just so he can slate his own manager!!!
I want Spurs to score twice…
…in their annual 5-2 loss.
How is 3rd to 4th an improvement?
Fuck the manager he’s a bellend.
I think I’ll pass on the offer of fucking a bell-end.
I saw Charlie George today in Putney. He said he still jogs a day or two and week and to be honest, he didn’t look a day over his 62. Apparently Wenger has invited him for a training session, with a view to …
Then, fer fcuks sale, I turned around and there was David Seamen walking his dog. He’s only 49, a bit fat, still big as ever,and is keen as mustard to egt the gloves on.
Striker, goalie … sorted
What odds we pick up a keeper but no outfield players that we actually need 🙁
“We will not panic buy, that is for sure. You can believe me. It is not in my strengths to panic,” said Wenger, who expects the midfielders Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey to be available this weekend. “You need good players in every position, and especially you need an attitude and way to play the game. The players here know the way we want to play and that is important. “If we can add players who can integrate with that style of play we will do it. We work very hard on that, if we cannot we will not do… Read more »
He’s had fucking Caesar under his fucking nose all summer! He’s not very good at ‘hunting’ is he?!
Cesar is the most overrated goalie in the world, he plays like stallone in escape to victory
Speaking of which, Stallone isn’t cuptied for CL & would be a freebie
There was a time when 5pur2 did not even come into the equation. We focused on winning the league. Now it’s about where we finish relative to them. If that’s not a decline I don’t know what is.
Jack Kelsey been resurrected yet…?
today blogs I listened to the arsecast as usual. why am I sitting here listening to a tottenham fan compare summer dealings. I fully admire your blogging skills, and I say this with little/lots of reluctance…. but fuck you
Ha ha, I must admit it did feel like your ex girlfriends new bloke telling you why she dumped you.
I found it quite interesting actually. He was essentially saying that despite being owned by a very rich man who has put very little into the club financially (where have I heard that before) the rich man decided to invest heavilly up front knowing they going to lose Bale. No doubt if Harry were still manager he wouldn’t have trusted the idiot.
You can only admire how they have gone about things to the extent that everyone is happy and then dispair when you look at Wenger’s double talk bollocks, Silent Stan and that pointless prick Gazidis.
When we lost RVP, we brought in Podolski, Cazorla and Giroud to cover that loss – it’s the same thing except they are getting a ridiculously inflated price for the diving simian. They’ll be weaker for at least the first half of the season as they try to build and balance a new team while our core team has been together for a year already. Add a few quality signings and we’re a far stronger team this season.
Those three players didn’t really give us many more points if any than the previous season when we relied so heavily on RVP and we finished one place lower. I think we are a better team having bought them as I suspect Tottenham will be with their new signings, once they get used to playing with each other. We have a good first 11 but our squad is so low in numbers and it is the squad as a whole that determines how well we will do. It is so frustrating because we all know the squad needed strengthening and… Read more »
Wenger doesn’t want Cesar or Begovic because they’d expect to be first choice. He’s looking for some cheap keeper to be 3rd choice.
Plot. as in Lost It.
Let him sing cesar for the sake of his xperience at least his is not glamouring for first team shirt.
Y not sign casillas on 1 yr loan….its a win-win
I think that blogs is about right today. Don’t be surprised if we don’t sign anybody on Monday. Wenger has played this card for years… Saying “we’ll sign somebody if we find super quality or the right player”, or something similar to that line, and then sure enough, we dont sign anybody. He now says bendtner could play! Unbelievable.
I agree with him that our first 11 is top quality. But these days you need a second 11, or at least 7-8 other top quality players. He obviously sees it differently.
Who could possibly be our ‘Mart Poom’ signing for 3rd choice? I doubt Wenger would sanction the wages on 2nd choice Given when he rates Flappanski so highly (not sure why?!) Schwarzer would have been an ideal fit given his age, experience, happiness to be second choice, and of course most importantly a FREE transfer. Though i’d prefer J.Cesar to push Szcz which is obvious only to Arsenal fans as opposed to Arsenal MGMT Regards Wenger’s comments about you’d be surprised how many players want to come back, i read that as Kolo – which again would have been a… Read more »
his job is safe (considering our rush to buy)…
We haven’t bought a world class keeper since Seaman…
I have just had a horrible thought. So many transfers seem to hang on when Bale goes to Real that those horrible little bagel eating spuds may be stalling knowing that when they complete at 2159 or what ever closing time is on deadline day, nobody else including us gets a chance to get who they want and they know the bridging loan they took out for the new spuds is paid off
Only a complete fucking idiot can’t see that we need another goalkeeper. Whatever you think about Chez he can only be improved with the competition of a senior or better guy in the sticks.
Three days before the doors shuts and not a single penny spent this summer – fucking unbelievable!
HOLY SHIT, WENGER!! SPEND. SOME. FUCKING. MO-NEY FFS!!!! GOD!!!! BALLS!! GAAAAAAHHHHHh!!!!! Whew… It builds up every once in a while. I have been told by my psychiatrist to release my transfer window frustrations online, and not on the neighbour’s collection of cats. Which, when things go a bit red, look like furry footballs set for punting.