Things are going from bad to worse at Arsenal with news that David Ospina is eyeing a move away from the club this summer.
The Times (£) are reporting that the Colombian number one is frustrated at his lack of playing time, despite being the designated cup keeper.
Ospina has played in all the Champions League games this season, as well as the FA Cup ties until this point, but has yet to make a single appearance in the Premier League.
Petr Cech is the man for domestic competition, and there are even suggestions this morning that he’s fed up without any European involvement.
It wouldn’t be any kind of surprise if Ospina wanted to go. He’s first choice for his country, and surely wants to be playing regular football at his age. The decision to give him the cup games feels like something of a sop to keep him happy.
Perhaps what Arsenal might consider – and bear with us here, this is a bit left-field – is finding a goalkeeper that’s so good there’s no question about who is going to play in the big games.
A revolutionary concept, but it might jut work.
Tschüss to who want to leave the ARSENAL
Bring back Szczesny and let him fight it out with Cech.
Forget this idealistic system on “fairness’ and pick the most capable in form GK.
It’s not a terrible system and I don’t think it’s preventing us winning things. The failures to fix a midfield partnership and coach defenders to defend have done that.
As with every system, though, when the core (ie Arsene) is weak, agents cause chaos.
Oh and you are missing attackers that can attack!!
Of course that’s going to depend on the manager, but I think Ospina, Monreal, Ramsey, Ozil and Sanchez will leave in the summer. All the others are happy to stay.
Monreal’s got nothing to complain about.
Bad to worse?
I’d say “bad to unimportant”
Not sure why the down votes.
Right now we have the issue of Wenger, Alexis and Ozil’s possible departures looming on the horizon, with the potential to throw the club into the most turbulent period it’s experienced in my lifetime.
So I think that the idea that our substitute goalkeeper might want to leave is fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of things, especially with Szczesny still technically on the books.
I agree. To much sensationalist crap around arsenal right now (unfortunately some of it is starting to be regurgitated on Arseblog). If the media was to be believed, all of our good players would be leaving and arsenal would be playing non league within 4 years and fading from existence within 5. We will likely change manager next season, Alexis may yet stay or may go, we may get a few decent results which will of course lift the mood, or we may drop out of the top 4 and finish below the spuds. We could get worse, or better,… Read more »
For what its worth I totally agree.
Knew I should have used the sarcasm font for the opening line
My comment wasn’t intended to be critical of your work, it was just a lazy way of saying that I too don’t think it’s very important. It’s probably the laziness that helped attract the down votes, judging by my subsequent elaboration.
Reading the line back it does indeed sound sarcastic now haha
When does the whole season end? Can’t be bothered with this shit anymore. I might start supporting Sutton united, at least them boys have got a bit of spirit! Sick and tired of the annual collapse and players trying to move on! I thought we were past all this shit? Oh well that’s the life of a gooner at the moment.
They’ve got cheaper pies. There’s a plus
After a decade of boring regularity, that flying shit has finally reached it’s target and first fan blades are in it’s sites. I, actually, am excited to see where it lands. Will it just slide through the fan and not make any significant damage, or will it paint the walls and ceiling? Whatever the case, we are in for the show this summer!
Your description was so vivid that I could actually visualize it. Well done! It does look to be a excitingly unsettled period ahead. The boat is a rockin’…we will see who’s left aboard.
The end of the season will either be the collapse of Arsenal or the kick start to a new begining. Let’s hope for the latter
Not everything is black or white. It could end up a bit grey…. Get a new manager, finish 3rd, knocked out of latter stages of CL, etc etc…
We have at least 2-3 teams every year who are prepared to invest more in their team. We have an owner and board who are content to collect the profits alone.
Changing the manager will spark some kind of change… hopefully. Problems above will still remain.
I was surprised when we got Cech as I felt at the time Ospina was a good, solid keeper and also there were other areas we needed strengthening.
Personally I’d like to see us bring back Szczęsny. He has been good in Italy and he seems to love the club, which I always like.
Quite happy for Ospina to go, he’s not good enough to be number one and very easy to replace.
I would also sell Cech in the Summer and have have Sczenzney & Jordan Pickford as our keepers fighting it out to be number one.
I agree Glocken. Ospina is ok but no more than that. I can’t see any way he would improve enough to be good enough to be our no. 1.
This ‘news’ is no big deal.
Who could blame him playing second fiddle to a fading great.
Pretty unfair final barb there, both of them are very good keepers – usually people moan about how shit the keepers are, now we have 2 very good ones, and now it’s a bad decision to try and give them a way to share the role? Is it better to give Cech all the games and give Ospina the U23 duties?
Both decent, but I’d get rid of them in a shot for someone stand-out great.
Blogs, have you been able to watch Ospina play for Colombia? He looks very good, and including against good teams. In all seriousness, I think he is exactly the keeper that Pep wants for Man City. Maybe we can get Arguero in return (not in all seriousness).
OK but who is “standout great”? De Gea and Neuer? Neither of which we would have a chance at picking up. An aged Buffon brought along by new manager Allegri is the only vague chance I can see, and at 39 I doubt he’d be better than our two.
I think we’re in a very healthy position GK wise, even more so when adding Szezchnyfyfxydydy into the mix.
Time to crack out the piano and cigarettes. Szczezza’s coming home.
Really not happy the way the manager is dealing with these two keepers. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense at all. And it is not creating any kind of competition either between the two. They are designated for domestic and cup competitions and no matter they do bad or worse (or better), they are kept for the same routine.
Have to agree. Cech should have been out of the team a few weeks back based on his performances. He is an experienced top keeper, but every now and then everyone needs a kick up the back side.
Given that Sanchez was clearly disciplined on Saturday and having ben told that Ozil, despite appearing in pictures last week at a team (or at least some clubmates) bowling night, was apparently stricken down by some illness hen ce his absence, is there a touch of the player unrest designed to undseat the manager that we w
saw undo Mourinho last year?
If this were the case, would it be a bad thing?
He’ll walk straight into the first 11 of most premier league sides so no wonder he’s not content sitting 3/4 of a season out.
Also according to the BBC our odds of going through are 33-1. Lecister won the league despite odds of 5000-1… just saying…
Where is this story on the Poometer?
Don’t blame him at all. For most positions you think you’d be chosen based on performance, but with keeper Wenger has a clear plan with Ospina in the Cup competitions and Cech in the league matches regardless of how well or how poorly one is playing. Cech has been average at best this season I feel and Ospina has been OK too, nobody has really stood out and nobody has been god awful. From this point forward I think Wenger should make it an open competition between the two and let them battle it out in training and in matches… Read more »
Imo Ospina is the best goalkeeper we have. His error rate is lower than most goalkeepers in Europe and the majority of goals he conceed are near impossible to do anything about. His reflexes are very good and i think the reason he is not well liked at Arsenal is because of his acrobatic style which is not common in England as most goalkeepers there since time began have allways been in the Traditionalist style. So when a South American Acrobatic style goalkeeper comes along everyone think it just looks off and just not right for a gk and they… Read more »
Maybe he figures there might not be much cup action to be had next year – or certainly not Champions League.
Dooooooooom and Gloooooooooom! Everything is shit, Arsenal out!
I find the criticism of the keeper job-sharing approach a bit unfair.
On merits, Cech is probably the best pick for Premier League games, and Ospina for European matches. Ospina is a better shot stopper these days, and Cech significantly better on crosses, and so they suit the different styles of play.
Thats very true.
But if this is true, I think its also time to move Cech on.
Lets either buy someone like Oblak, or get Szcz back and use Martinez or a new guy as backup.
Lol i doubt anyone gives a flying fuck, i cant think of a single player 1 player in our squad that would hurt me if he leaves, apart from maybe Debuchy 0-0
Do not feed the troll.
I would love to see Szczesny back in goal for us. He may still have some things to learn but I don’t think we’re doing that great with Cech in goal and Espina as backup. I am still bothered by Ospina’s lack of height. I truly believe that Szczesny is going to become a great goalie. He is doing very well with Roma.
And if we were all worried about Szcz’s ‘adventurous’ moments with the ball at his feet, well, Ospina hasn’t been making me feel any less incontinent as of late.
@ a revolutionary concept. Hahahahaha. That sure got me laughing hard.
Whether Wenger leaves or not I would like to see the following type of lineup for us for next year. Goalie – Szczesny RB – Bellerin RCB – Chambers LCB – Koscielny LB – New Acquisition DM – Coquelin CM – Cazorla LW – New Acquisition RW – Lucas AW – Alexis/Griesmann CF – Welbeck I think Gibbs and Monreal are only good for backup at this time. Chambers appears to be doing well on loan this year. He is too slow for the outside, but his positioning is good. He reminds me of a shorter younger Mertesacker. I know… Read more »
Haha. Picking a fantasy XI yet retaining Coquelin.
lol exactly what I was thinking. WTF you pick your XI from anywhere and you include Coq haha you got “new acquisition” lol and you put in Coq???
And cazorla. Great player but I think hes probably knackered now. Id sooner slip the ox in there than ramsey too. The ox has been massively impressive centrally
This team is dependent on a fit Santi, same as the team that was riding high at the beginning of the season. Problem is, given our injury record, we can’t base our system around brilliant individuals who we can’t replace internally throughout the season (whether they get injured or have dips in form).
I would like to see Emiliano Martinez playing. He is very good and everytime he has been called up he has done a good job. Young keeper whos been with the club for a long time.
I see an exodus and a massive rebuild coming this summer. Ospina, Gibbs, Debuchy, Jenkinson, Chamberlain, Wilshere, Cazorla (not leaving but out due to injury), Alexis, and of course Arsene Wenger might all need replacing before next season.
Get out while you can, dave!
This ‘designated cup ‘keeper’ business is the biggest bucket of hog-slop I’ve seen in all my years of watching football.
What it really means, and I’m thinking the CL here, is that neither ‘keeper is good enough (in Wenger’s eyes) rather than both being ‘world class’ (in Wenger’s words). If one of them was Seaman in his prime, he’s playing both the prem and the CL (odd group game aside).
Playing 2 keepers is what we do now. We also considered bypassing the midfield to be more direct.
Wonder if the club know we don’t need to copy Barca in everything they do.
Tearing apart our opposition with highly entertaining football was a nice similarity we shared at one time. It was great when we used to do that.
Haha. Nicely played.
He has better reactions than Cech but is suspect with crosses. I said it first leg it will be IMPORTANT to protect him and the Cbacks from crosses into Lewandoski. The midfield and wide men have to close down any Bayern player outside the defense quickly to ensure this (we did not do that) Also another way to invite less trouble will be not to drop as deep and narrow (which we also did against Liverpool) We seemed to be instructed to do so and watch our spacing and we get to caught up on being technically perfect in this… Read more »
Not that we would ever spend that money but rumours thst Donnarouma (sp) could move for kev £40mill – looks a class keeper in the making and already shows he is very good! and only 18years old