It has been a memorable few days for talented young Arsenal goalkeeper Hubert Graczyk.
On Thursday the Poland youth international was selected by Mikel Arteta to train with the first-team squad and the following night he travelled to Selhurst Park as the club’s third-choice goalkeeper for the game againstrr Crystal Palace.
The following day he was in action as Arsenal U21s got their campaign underway at home to Manchester United. Graczyk produced an impressive display in a 3-1 victory for Arsenal and he made some excellent saves.
Graczyk is only 19 years old but his journey to reach this stage has been quite a lengthy one – he was first called up to the U18 squad in 2017.
Over the past couple of years in particular Graczyk has progressed a lot – he now commands his penalty area with greater authority, is very vocal and possesses superb reflexes.
In the long term Graczyk faces a challenge at Arsenal to get ahead of the likes of Arthur Okonkwo and Karl Hein, who are not much older than him.
For now, Graczyk is focusing on his own game and it is likely that he will be the first-choice goalkeeper for the U21s for the first half of this season, although Hein, who has been promoted to the first-team squad, could play some games for the second-string when he is back from injury.
It is possible that Graczyk could go on loan in the second half of the season but he will hope to get on the bench for the first-team at some point before then (two goalkeepers can be named as subs in the Europa League).
The season has only just started but Graczyk has already had some notable moments and he will hope that there will be many more to come.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Looking forward to the days of home grown keepers like Sczesny.
But Ramsdale, at 24, will take something really special to dislodge him.
The only person who could dislodge Ramsdale is himself.
Goes without saying that Runarsson really needs to find a new club but with the salary he’s on it’ll likely be another loan with us paying most of the salary.
Of course theoretically we could pay him to leave but the problem then is that Bellerin and Maitland-Niles and Nelson would all expect the same.
Why are you being downvoted haha.
Runarasson was a bad bad idea. Enough to get someone sacked. I get gambling but I don’t know what they ever saw in the first place.
We should just keep Runarsson around as 3rd choice. The salary he’s on is likely life changing for him and far above what he could earn elsewhere, so there is no chance he takes a permanent transfer before it expires. Unless we pay him close to what he’s owed for the remainder of his contract, in which case what’s the point? And it sounds harsh but we should give the loan spells and U-23 games to our younger GKs who may have the potential to play for us or elsewhere at a high level one day. 3rd choice GKs very… Read more »
And what salary he is on? For a player, bought for 2m from Dijon, I would not expect anything spectacular. Quick googling is also showing results in the range of 15,000 per week.
Hopefully it is that low. Quick Googling also shows several claims of 40,000 a week.
Thanks for these reports, Jeorge. I was at the game on Saturday. Like you, I was impressed by Graczyk‘s communication with his back line. Very vocal, this young man. At one point in the first half, he even gave directions to Tomiyasu, urging him to press one man higher; and Tomiyasu gave the keeper a thumbs-up as thanks. That’s certainly a good sign that Graczyk can read the game well.
Off topic … but have any ST holders received a new plastic card this year? Or do we use last season’s?