When he lost his place in the team after a poor performance at Southampton and a crafty Benson & Hedges in the shower, many people took it as a sign that Arsene Wenger had lost patience with Wojciech Szczesny.
The Pole didn’t play another Premier League game as David Ospina took over, and rumours of his departure this summer because of that floated around.
However, the Polish international told the official website today that what people perceive from the outside and the reality inside the club are two very different things.
“Speaking honestly, it hasn’t been quite as awful a time for me as it might have seemed from the outside,” he said.
“I’ve got a really good relationship with the boys in the squad as well as with the boss. I fully accept the boss’ decisions, whatever they may be. Of course, it’s understandable that your pride feels hurt and your ambition dented. That’s only natural and to be expected.”
Before the cup final Szczesny distanced himself unequivocally from remarks his father made in the Polish press, and after being selected for Wembley, went public with his desire to stay at the club.
He also talked about being given the chance to play in the final by Wenger who, if he didn’t trust the player and his ability, certainly wouldn’t have picked him for reasons of sympathy.
“To have come through such a challenge leaves you with a really special feeling of satisfaction,” he said, “and so I’m very grateful to the manager for selecting me to play this time.
“People love to speculate and people love to gossip a bit. But I love this club and I don’t want to ever leave it.”
We’ve always been of the opinion that although Szczesny losing his place was entirely down to him, the criticism of him was way over the top and that he’s a much better keeper than he’s given credit for.
We’ll have to wait and see what the manager wants to do this summer, but it feels as if the door might just still be open for him.
On the outside, Szczesny is handling this with uncharacteristic maturity.
I think a lot is made of his minor indiscretions. Compare to Bendtner…
That’s because nobody ever expected the TGSTEL to be anything.
That’s just a lie. I still remember he and arturo lupoli destroying everything in their path at reserve and youth level.
6 foot 4 in, Danish international at 18, Arsenal debut at 17, scored in 1.8 seconds v Sp*rs.
Threw it away, but had a great chance if he had the temperament.
I’m pretty sure Arturo Lupoli and Aleksandr Hleb are the same person. They were at the club around the same time, but did you ever notice how they were never in the same room at the same time?
Ok fair enough he was an exciting prospect at the youth level, but what I mean that given his behavioral patterns it was very quickly clear that his career was going nowhere for quite a long time, preceding his most glamorous of tabloid spotlights.
I must say he would look dashing in a turtle kneck
So far, am loving him more
Better you stay and fight for your place
He will stay I think, as will Ospina, Flamini (one year to go on his contract), Rosicky (signing for another year), Arteta (looks like extending) and Theo.
Won’t be many squad spaces left. One or two in is the max I reckon.
I hope he has a great pre season and wins the no.1 spot back. I dont think we need a new keeper imo. i think the 2 we have are great.
I can’t help but wonder if not playing the final last year affected his motivation somewhat.
Winning the golden glove then not being trusted for the final over a keeper who was clearly leaving must smart a little.
I can’t help but wonder if Wenger took him out of the firing line in the league to give him the opportunity in the cup.
Still think we need to go after Cech, if he is made available. Szczesny is still learning and prone to mistakes. No doubt he can be a great keeper but Cech will take us one level up on the world class scale now and give Szczesny incentive to focus on becoming the best.
I think Cech has lost what he once had. If you think back to the player who first arrived in the PL he would have been serious competition for Courtois but the current player has offered little. Maybe he just needs a new challenge but that’s a very difficult thing to judge, any manager signing him is taking something of a gamble, especially given his wages. I’d rather we went for someone like Lloris personally. A better goalkeeper than our two and Cech but he will cost us a small fortune too. Who’d be a manager..
I think Cech is exactly what we need, he’s an experienced head who has won everything in club football. If you watch some interviews he also wants to go into coaching and would definitely help train up some of the younger keepers. He’s also played for some of the best managers in modern football and has probably learnt a lot from all of them. If he were to join, he could give us insight into how for example Mourinho would prepare to play against us and use it against Chelsea, or Ancelotti for whoever he takes over. When you buy… Read more »
OT: What has Giroud done to his hair? Was so disappointed when I saw him in the final with that new blonde stuff. Took away some of the joy at Saturday. We won a trophy but we lost another (most gorgeous man in football). Don´t know which one I prefer the most. Please Oliver, dye your hair back to normal.
I don’t know if it’s as bad as all that … my daughter told me she still ovulates every time she sees him.
I think szez never got the benefit of seeing the coqs emergence into the team. I think ospina was fortunate enough that his opportunity came at a time that coq came out of nowhere to give the whole back four that protection weve been craving. Was the FA cup the first time szeszney and coquelin started together this season? Clean sheet too
Coq came out of nowhere?
One of arteta or flamini has to leave. We need a new dm versatile enough to play as a cb/cm.
Anyone who thinks this squad is good enough to win the league as it is is deluded.
New striker, Dm and GK in that order.
I would agree if there wasn’t strong competition for places, young and improving players (Jack and Theo since they came back), players coming into their best years (Ramsey, Sanchez, Theo, Ozil), squad stability and automatisms, great morale, an excellent second half to the season.
Not saying we shouldn’t buy one or two players, just that it isn’t that deluded to imagine us going through a season at a higher level overall (just repeat the form of the second half) and at least challenge for the top with the current squad, especially if Shad is really doing his stuff on injuries.
That’s the problem…we Always end our seasons on a high and people think we’re getting closer to chelsea and city, then both teams go strengthen considerably and take another step ahead.
We def need a striker and dm; no 2 ways about it. We only get a gk if a world class one is available. If we can’t get cech, leno or even lloris, then we stick with what we have.
I don’t much want Cech, I think he’s past it and his wages will be enormous. I wouldn’t say no to Lloris, however. But if Szczesny is staying a new keeper clearly isn’t part of Wenger’s summer plans. As for the defensive midfielder, as you suggest, we don’t have unlimited squad places or unlimited money for wages, which means, now Arteta and Rosicky have been given new contracts and Flamini has a year left, a new defensive-(ish) central midfielder can’t be part of the plan either. Wenger has often said that he sees box-to-box midfield as Ramsey’s ideal postion; and… Read more »
Why should Wenger agree with any pundits about anything at all? Henry said we need to strengthen the ‘spine’. There’s nothing wrong with our four CBs, Coquelin is the best DM in the league, and look at Chel$ea, after Matic they have Mikel. Christ, I’d rather have Arteta, Flamini and Chambers. Do we need another striker? Depends if Walcott will actually be used more in that position, as Wenger promised. Nobody can complain about his performances there so far. As for the keeper, well pffftfttt. Frankly, I don’t think it’s that big of a problem. Why get Lloris for a… Read more »
That bit about central attacking midfielder flew right over your head
Total nonsense mate. Have a look at the stats. Ospina makes more saves per goal he let’s in. He makes more saves in dangerous areas per goal he lets in. The improved defence stops us conceding more of these chances to opposition but he still saves a higher % of them than SZCZ.
Don’t believe me – http://www.squawka.com/comparison-matrix#premier_league/2014/2015/thibaut_courtois/126/126/1558/0/p|premier_league/2014/2015/wojciech_szczesny/126/126/226/0/p|premier_league/2014/2015/david_ospina/126/126/1264/0/p|premier_league/2014/2015/david_de_gea/126/126/590/0/p|premier_league/2013/2014/petr_cech/126/64/27/0/p#errors_leading_to_goal/defensive_errors/saves_per_goal#90
One FA cup win where he had nothing at all to do except take 3-4 crosses (which he did really well) and I’ve seen comments saying he’s better than Courtois. Nothing like getting carried away, eh.
My apologies, to used to posting links on the arses for got to shorten it – http://tinyurl.com/p49cyud
They started together in the New Years Day debacle at Southhampton, but yeah, I do agree with you anyway.
I seriously doubt Wenger and the coaches evaluates their keepers based on clean sheets. Coquelin playing or not does not make any difference to whom is selected to start in goal. Their own performance is what matters, not the performance of coq or any other player. Wenger knows full well Szczesny can keep clean sheets to behind a solid defense from last season when our defense was extremely solid with the exception of a few of the big games where we got hammered. Unfortunately Szcz could not put in David De Gea like performances for us back then and save… Read more »
‘and a crafty Benson & Hedges in the shower’. Seems more of a Silk Cut man to me. Seriously though he can be a top keeper still. Needs to work on a few things definitely but he didnt keep the most clean sheets last year for no reason, a fact that has been fast forgotten.
Szczesny is our GK for the future, in my opinion. I hope we don’t buy Cech, or anyone else for that position. There are better opportunities for improvement.
Personally, I don’t think we will get a new keeper. Cech will not be allowed to leave Chelsea for Arsenal, and I think Wenger will stick with Scz/Ospina/Martinez. To be honest, the money would be better spent filling up the other areas that need addressing. And most of this is linked to who we might sell. We’re fine at the back with per, kos, gabriel and Chambers, RB with 3 competent players, and LB. If Monreal *does* consider moving back to Spain, we will have to think of an alternative to him. Does anyone think playing Bellerin at LB would… Read more »
If we can get Cech for somewhere around £10 million why not. He’s got atleast 3 years left in the tank.
£10m for a 33 year old second choice keeper? Yes, why don’t we make Maureen a happy man.
That “33 year old second choice keeper” is miles better than what we have at the moment. 10m for someone like cech is a bargain.
Ummm where did this “Monreal consider moving back to Spain” come from?
It’s all in detail here: http://news.arseblog.com/2015/06/nacho-i-want-to-stay-at-arsenal/
Jackson Matinez nd schneiderlin only,d leaque will be ours.
Szscen
Sczczny’s future is in his own hands. He has the talent and opportunity to be one of the greats. It’s left to him to develop his focus and discipline to get there. He needs to win us games when we are not playing well. That’s what the great ones do
Szcz might hadn’t have a good season, but i still believe he could improve himself to be good in his year to come. All the criticism thrown to him was way too much, especially the media who always wanted to make him look really bad by those stupid thing. I am just glad that now he’s now more mature in handling the controversy of himself. Mature in way of his talk & i loved how he showed his loyalty to the club and his respect to the boss. Loyalty & respect, i love both.
WS1 is likely to start the season as no 1, either just cos he is no 1 or else cos Ospina is on copa duty and may not have a proper preseason.. its left to him what he does with the chance…
10 straight clean sheets should settle that matter once and for all I think
Cech the Czech No! Better go for Sirigu or Handovic
The problem with signing Cech for a few years is that it probably means Martinez and one of Szcesney and Ospina will move on. Like a few others have said I think Arsenal will stick with the keepers they’ve got .
No Cheque please. I predict Shez to have a big bounce back year next season and re-establish himself as one of the PL’s best.
Cassilas or Check of 5 yrs ago and I would be all over that, but our Pole has way more upside than those 2 aging stars.
Just got a strange feeling he’ll come good again next season