Wojciech Szczesny says that he wants to stay in Italy and make his move to Roma a permanent one.
The Polish keeper has spent this season on loan from Arsenal and has had a successful spell in Serie A. Roma have qualified for next season’s Champions League, and with Petr Cech likely to be the number 1 at the Emirates next season, Szczesny is willing to make the move full time to the Italian capital.
“I want to stay,” he said. “It’s not all up to me, obviously. I want it to happen, and I know Roma and Arsenal are talking about it, so we’ll see what happens.
“I’m happy to have helped the team and winning the title must be the next objective for this club.”
It will be interesting to see what happens with the goalkeeping situation at the club next season. Will David Ospina be satisfied with another season where he’s mostly on the bench? It seems unlikely.
It’s also our understanding that the loan to Roma, which came after a difficult period for the 26 year old, wasn’t made to just get rid of him. It was a chance for him to play and mature, and perhaps come back to the club where had made 181 appearances – including the FA Cup final against Aston Villa in 2015.
Whether he’d be happy to understudy Cech is also open to question, so quite what the plans are for the goalkeepers ahead of the 2016/17 campaign we don’t know.
UPDATE
Szczesny has since clarified his position via his Facebook page:
Let him leave. He’s earned it.
Agree. Not because he’s earned it but because he can’t be trusted.
or, we sell him to Roma with a cheap buy-back clause in case we want him back like Madrid with Moratta.
Yeah.. get out while you can boy. Club has turned to shite.
And thus ends the failed Szczesny experiment.
That feeling when your, in love, reliable back-up shag finally moves on with her life.
Oh… and I still can’t spell your name!
I’ll be sad to see him leave.
Always had a mistake in him but he was capable of the sublime just as often as the ridiculous. I had hoped with age would come the maturity to cut the mistakes out.
Plus I’ll always love him for this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FpZ_A2j6QI
Happy for him to leave, I think he’s done at Arsenal & he needs first team football, the same with Ospina, not good enough to be number one and also needs games.
I would like us to recruit a young English keeper who can learn from and keep Cech on his toes and eventually become a number one. Jordan Pickford from Sunderland would be a good move.
Haven’t we learned our lesson that recruiting a bunch of English players is not conducive to having a successful team?
Nope, Spurs have shown this year what you can do with young English players.
We also have a history of developing young players (Adams, Rocky, Thomas, Merse etc.).
Not sure nationality is the key, just ability and attitude. I wouldn’t write off Jenks (capable back up), Gibbs (ditto) and Jack just yet.
I referenced a young English keeper as it would be nice to see one come through as we haven’t had one since Seaman and it would help in the overseas quota the club need to stick to.
It would only help the quota if the nightmare of Brexit happens. So long as we remain in the EU, European players, including young and uncapped ones, don’t need work permits, and if they come at 16 by the time they reach the senior team they’ll count as home-grown just the same as someone English or Welsh. If we do leave the EU, of course, God help us because we’ll face years of uncertainty and Arsenal could stand to lose half it’s current academy. This includes an ace-looking kid keeper called Virginia, who’s Portuguese. Only City and Chelsea won’t be… Read more »
I think Emi Martinez is ready to be Cech’s back-up. Moving on Ospina and Szcz should bring in 10M in transfer fees and shave a chunk off the wage bill.
Surely just loan him out again. I have faith that there is a world class keeper in there and he can take over from Cech in another season or two. He still only 26. Plenty of time
Wonder if Roma would be open to a wee switcheroo, we bring Sir Chesney back and lend them Ospina for a year.
Do what Chelsea did with Curtois maybe
Could ‘wanting to stay’ mean he just wants another years loan? Feel like he could replace Cech eventually, but maybe in a couple years time?
No idea why I got downvoted so much this turned out to be literally what he wanted
If we agree that its hard being a center back in Arsene’s team as suggested by Vermealen & Squliacchi
I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for a young goalie.
1 thing ive learnt over the years is that all our ex-players we considered shit might actually not be shit after all, but looked shit cos they were playing in a shit system.
Hope that clears shit up 🙂
Are you trying convince me that Andre Santos wasn’t actually shit?
PS Well done Baggies last night – Verry good draw gays!!!
There’s always 1, and i did say ‘Might’
Who exactly did we think was shit that turns out wasn’t shit?
I’m all ears hear.
If anything we’ve had the opposite of that problem.
Clichy was shit with us and has been much less of that with $hitty.
Didn’t Gervinho turn out to be decent?
guys?
In more important news, Leicester better be sealing the deal. Not having st totteringhams this year is bad enough, losing the “you won the league in black and white” chant is really taking the piss.
Don’t get me wrong though I love Sczez, but I have a rather small interest in where he ends up. Come back and learn from Cech, awesome. Stay in Roma for regular game time, fair enough can’t really hold him against it.
If he wants to stay at Roma it’s to be second choice next season, so he’s basically saying being second choice there is preferable to second choice with us. Seems reasonable as Roma are currently doing well and showing a lot more ambition than us in that they sacked Rudi Garcia who wasn’t doing that bad a job and, being young, looked like he might turn into a very good manager in time. I rate Martinez and hope he’ll get a chance as second choice next season. He’s calm and commanding and did nothing wrong in the few games he… Read more »
So you missed Martinez’s displays in the League Cup then?
He doesn’t look great shakes to me.
PS – Spalletti is criminally underrated if you ask me – good on Roma for bringing him in from the cold
Spalletti is a fantastic manager, no arguments there.
Mmm spaghetti
Arsenal will likely insert all manner of clauses into any potential sale. If he does leave it will be good for his career and we could likely profit from a future transfer as well. Kroenke Business Club will love that; I’m not sure what that would mean to our current players. “Get out while you can” springs to mind.
Sigh, what a mess we’re in.
Good luck Wojciech Szczesny, it’s win-win as we have two decent keepers & he deserves a fresh start. He never lacked commitment, just a bit of professionalism that some ‘more’ anger driven managers might have been able to put in to him. Just wasn’t quite to be in the end.
Promote from within. Move Chezzers and Ospina, who’ll probably want to leave for more gametime as well. Macey and Huddart to understudy Petr. I’m sure they will be appreciative to learn under the tutelage of Cech.
…and I always forget about Martinez as well….
Cech isn’t there to tutor young keepers
the sensible thing would be to loan him again. That said we will probably sell him and ospina out of kindness and go into next season with one goalkeeper and a child as backup. Cech will get injured in pre-season and another “wenger gamble” will backfire to the ire of fans everywhere. Ozil and Sanchez will be so fed up they will forge transfer papers to spurs stating their reason for departure was lack of ambition. Arsenal fans will subsequently spontaneously combust in rage leaving the emirates as a fiery bowl of hell. Its not all doom and gloom though.… Read more »
Accurate. You must be psychic! Can you read my palm please? haha
If he wants to go then he probably should – push comes to shove, he’s not as good a Cech so he won’t make 1st team for 2 seasons at least. Having said that, I think it’s a shame – for every mistake he made (and he did make them) there was always a great save to provide balance – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O9ovuV0LwE. Think he could be very good in years to come.
Now even Szczesny wants rid of this calamitous lot. Oh the times.
That’s good news. We don’t want players like Szczesny in the Premier League, he’s got a big mouth.
Lets be honest tho since Almunia all of our keepers all make silly mistakes… theres more to it than just the goal keeper… imagine if cech goes the same way, then who do we blame?
How about we sell him relatively but have a ludicrously low buy back option in two years’ time. Cech will most likely be past his best and hopefully Szczesny will have finally grown up and doing what we all believe he’s capable of. Probably too simple to work…
Source??
Let me ask again in a different way. who was he talking to? Where did Rseblog pull these quotes from? No attribution at all and a bit of a faux pax considering how Andrew has repeatedly railed against this sort of thing.
Without proper context, you cant correctly interpret the message in his comments. So its nice to see the player himself call bullshit on these kinds of “stories.”
Roma have to want him. He hasn’t done much to show why they should. He’s been ok there, but no different than he was here – generally a good keeper prone to disastrous errors on occasion.
Despite the fact that the update calls into question the veracity of the whole story, it would make some sense for him to push to make the move permanent. Roma have qualified for the CL already and Arsenal are struggling for a qualifying slot. Arguably he’s the first choice keeper at a stronger club.
Good to see Szczesny using the Arseblog News poo-ometer. Probably would have added a couple more though.
Good news at last.
Bit harsh, you guys aren’t proper shit.
At least he reads the site!
Hi, Wojciech!
Get out while you can Wojciech.
If Ospina is ok to be #2 for another season, then let’s loan out Shez for another year. It’s always only been speculation that Ospina wants to leave. I’ve never ever heard reports of him complaining about his situation. I have full confidence in Ospina to be our #2 and if he should get a run of games due to Cech injury, rotation or loss of form, then no problem by me. He made a blunder in CL but has been pretty solid when pressed into action. All keepers make mistakes. Even Cech had the howler of a game vs… Read more »
There seems to be a lot of anger towards Sczesney. I think mainly because people are frustrated, for a season he looked like he could be our number 1 for years to come. I’ve always liked him, and I wouldn’t want to rule out his return. There was a lot of faith and good will for him, I personally hope he comes back and fulfills his potential.
Some cracking saves in here:
http://youtu.be/Etcp3rssFVU
what is his father’s opinion on this matter?
Surely you guys should change the story / headline if it’s not technically true. Seeing it still reported by other sites even though the player is forced to say it’s not true.
That makes way more sense r.e Woj’s post. Let him have another full season on loan and if at the end of that year he’s turning heads in Europe bring him back for an honest competition with Cech.