Tag Archives: Wojciech Szczęsny

Cazorla OUT, Szczesny STAYs, does anyone have a CLUE?

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Santi Cazorla OUT

It has been reported that Santi Cazorla’s injury will keep him out for another 12 months. It will be a sad end to a good Arsenal career.

Earlier this year, I questioned whether it would be a good idea to renew Cazorla’s contract for another 12 months.

He has had an awful 24 months with injury, and looked set to be ruled out till Christmas. He has now potentially been ruled out until the end of the season. This means Arsenal have basically chucked money away.

Interestingly, a lot of those attacking my opinion when I said we should not renew often criticise Arsenal for giving contracts to the likes of Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky in the past, but they were happy to renew Cazorla’s.

A sad end to a career.

Wojciech Szczesny STAYs

It all seems to have gone a bit quiet surrounding Wojciech Szczesny and Juventus.

Early summer interest does not seem to have materialised into a strong transfer bid.

With Szczensy’s contract set to run out in 12 months, Juventus know that they can put the transfer to one side and secure the Polish keeper on a pre-contract deal in 6 months. With Buffon not set to retire until next season, they are not pushed to get in a number 1.

Meanwhile, at Arsenal, a move for Jordan Pickford did not happen, and David Ospina still looks set to leave. This would leave Arsenal with no senior Number 2 if Szczesny also leaves.

Putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5, it would not surprise me if Szczesny is at Arsenal next year, as number 2, before moving to Juventus on a free transfer in the summer of 2018.

Attention seeking ITKs

So I am seeing attention seeking Vloggers and Bloggers becoming attention seeking ‘in the knows’ all because the miss the attention during the off season.

The reality is they are attention seeking w*nkers.

No one knows what Arsenal are doing. Arsene Wenger does not know what Arsenal are doing.

People just guess. They hope to get it right every now again. Sadly there are people out there so desperate for information that they will believe anything that is said. They elevate these saddos and play to their ego’s by asking for updates.

We always just give our opinion. Like in Szczesny above. It is our opinion he is staying. We are not privy to anything.

Ignore the white noise. Ignore the attention seekers. Do not give them the air the demand and they will suffocate.

Keenos

Who will be Arsenal’s number 2 next year?

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Who will be Arsenal’s number 2 next year?

In an ideal world, playing Football Manager on my lap top, I would have signed Jordan Pickford this summer.

The deal would have been easy. With Petr Cech coming to the end of his career, Pickford would have come in as Arsenal’s number two. With Arsenal in the Europa League, Pickford would have got all the cup games. League Cup and Europa League games in the first half of the year. Europa League and FA Cup in the second half.

This would amount to around 20 games depending on our progress in the 3 competitions. All a while giving Pickford the chance to train alongside a goal keeping legend, and Arsenal a close up opportunity to judge whether Pickford really is a future superstar.

After the 1st year, Cech would then be put down and Pickford, if he has shown he can deal with the extra scrutiny and expectations at a top club, would step up to be Arsenal’s number one for the next 10 years.

In joining Everton, Pickford has actually made a good decision. Rather than be a number two at Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea, he has joined a lesser team where he will go straight in as number one. With Joe Hart out of form and Jack Butland still not 100% after his long term injury, Pickford is giving himself the best outside chance to be England Number 1 at the World Cup in 2018.

At the very least, as long as he stays injury free, you would expect him to leap over Tom Heaton and Fraser Forster and be on the plane to Russia.

A couple of decent years for Everton, the top clubs will then be knocking on his door offering him the chance of the Number 1 jersey.

The price of £30m might be excessive, but Everton might have just signed their goal keeper for the next 10 years – that then works out at £3m a year. Or if he performs well and in 2 years joins Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea as their new number 1, you have to think they would be willing to pay £50m – especially considering the way transfer prices are inflating each year.

With Pickford off the table, this removes one potential option for a future understudy for Petr Cech.

Current number 2, David Ospina, is surely finally going to leave this summer? How long can a class keeper, and regular for his country, stay as number 2, playing a a dozen or so games a year?

It is clear Arsene Wenger does not think he is good enough to be number 1 in the Premier League, so he will surely be shipped out. Long term interest from Fenerbache might finally turn into a transfer.

We then have Wojciech Szczesny.

Many fans have looked at the stats and decided Szczesny was the best keeper in Italy last year, when he was on loan to Roma. They see Juventus looking to make a £14m offer for his services as the eventual replacement for Gianluigi Buffon. “If he is good enough to replace the greatest of all time, why is he not good enough for Arsenal” a friend asked me yesterday.

A valid question, and my response was reasonable. “He has had enough chances at Arsenal.”

Whilst Szczesny’s natural ability has never been in question, what is between his ears has been.

A tendency to lose concentration that led to mistakes that cost goals, and a few attitude issues, saw Szczesny lose his place in the Arsenal first team on more than one occasion. Things came to a head in January when Szczesny made errors leading to both goals in Arsenal’s 2–0 defeat at Southampton. His response was to go to the showers for a smoke, and he was dropped for the rest of the season.

Sent on loan to Italy, he has matured in the 2 years he has been at Roma, but old habits die hard. He was dropped in 2016 after once again being caught smoking following a 6-1 defeat to Barcelona. And whilst he often made match winning saves, the mistakes have not been eradicated from his game.

For me, if we still planned for him to be number 1, he should have been bought back from loan last season, number 2 for Arsenal in 2016/17 and then moved to 1st choice this season.

With a year left on his contract, Arsenal will do well to cash in on him.

That then leaves us with Emiliano Martinez.

The giant Argentinean looked OK in his very small handful of games this season. But has he really shown enough to be number 2 next season.

Let me switch the question around. If Petr Cech picked up a season long injury on 1st September 2017, would you be happy with Martinez coming in for the remainder of the season? Or until January 1st? The answer is probably no.

He might be a decent 3rd choice keeper. But he has simply not shown enough that he can be Cech’s back up. And with Arsenal also needing to search for a new first choice keeper over the next 12 months, Martinez is simply not good enough.

He would be worth keeping around for as long as he wants to be 3rd choice, but, like Vito Mannone before him, he will never be more than that at Arsenal.

That leaves Arsenal in an awkward situation. We need to go out and find a 2nd choice keeper who is happy being an understudy to Petr Cech. Happy with the Europa League games. But is good enough to replace Cech if he picks up an injury. In an ideal world, it would be someone under 25 who could then replace Cech in a years time.

When you look at the top 6’s current Number 2, you see the calibre of goal keeper we need to target (based on 2016/17):

Chelsea: Asmir Begovic
Tottenham: Michel Vorm
Manchester City: Willy Caballero
Liverpool: Loris Karius
Arsenal: David Ospina
Manchester United: Sergio Romero
Everton: Joel Robles

All 7 have been regular number for top flight sides in England, Spain, Germany or France. 4 of the 7 have played for their country, 3 of which have been their countries undisputed number 1 at some point in their career.

It will not be easy finding a number two.

Would the likes of Joe Hart, Fraser Forster or Jack Butland be happy putting their World Cup place at risk? Probably not. Maybe Arsenal could go another route and encourage the now-surplus-to-requirements Maarten Stekelenburg to finish his career as number 2 at Arsenal? Not one for the future but certainly good enough to deputise for Cech. Adrian at West Ham could be a similar senior option if they sign Joe Hart.

Could Arsenal make a move for AC Milan youngster Gianluigi Donnarumma? He certainly has the talent the be a future number one and at just 18 might be willing to spend a year behind Petr Cech to continue learning his trade. Although to go from AC Milan number 1 to arsenal number 2 might take some encouraging. With a year left on his current Milan deal, it is a move Arsenal could make.

Another young Italian is Simone Scuffet at Udinese. At 21 he is older than Donnarumma, but less experienced. Another who could be future number 1, but is he currently good enough to take over from Cech were Cech to get injured? Possibly not.

A final option (well not the final option, but the last name I am going to mention) is Germany’s Timo Horn. At 24 he has a big future ahead of him, and has already totted up over 150 games for Koln. At the 2016 Olympics, he was Germany’s starting goal keeper.

He has been compared in his career to Liverpool’s Loris Karius – who had a rough 1st year in the North-West. But he would be coming in for a year to play 2nd fiddle to Cech, rather than Karius who came in as number one

There are plenty of other options for Arsenal this summer, and it will be an interesting one to watch unfold and see what route Wenger takes us down.

Keenos

 

Serious investment required if Arsenal stick to 3-4-2-1

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In the last few weeks we have changed to 3-4-2-1 with fairly impressive results. The high profile defeat to Spurs being the only humungous blot on the copy book. Victories over Middlesbrough, Manchester City, Leicester City and Manchester United have led us to 4 wins from 5 games.

The key question now is do we continue with this formation into 2017/18 and plan our transfers around it, and if so, who would we need to add to the squad?

In the current formation, we play a very high line. Therefore we need a goal keeper who is kick off the line who can play as a sweeper in the same way as Hugo Lloris or Manuel Neuer perform the role for their perspective clubs. Petr Cech is slow off his line, and with his recent poor form, moving forward he is certainly not the future.

A new goal keeper, or Wojciech Szczesny has to be on the list this summer.

At right wing back, we look fairly well set. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has impressed, and in reserve we also have Hector Bellerin, an attacking full back who suits a wing back role perfectly.

Moving through the back line, Shkodran Mustafi is a naturally right sides centre back. With Calum Chambers as his understudy, we look well set. Laurent Koscielny will be the linchpin that holds the middle of the park together, with Rob Holding and Gabriel also in the frame. Add in Per Metesacker and we have plenty of options.

The left hand side of the 3 is another story, however. Recently both Rob Holding and Nacho Monreal has looked OK there, but it is certainly a weakness. If we were to continue with 3-4-2-1, someone over and above Monreal is needed. Sead Kolasinac could be the answer here.

Kolasinac is naturally a left back, but has played centre back in the past for German side Schalke. At 6ft and left footed, could he come in and be the left sided centre back we need? With Nacho Monreal then backing him up?

The left sided problems continue when we look at left wing back. Monreal is too defensive to play wing back – hence his recent successful move to left centre back, whilst Kieran Gibbs is simply not good enough. If Kolasinac was to play centre back, we would then need to go and sign a left wing back.

Ricardo Rodriguez was heavily linked last summer, but my bet would be Jordi Alba. The Spaniard has recently found himself out of favour at Barcelona and would fit in to the left wing back role at Arsenal. Providing his back up would be Nacho Monreal who would also double up covering left centre back.

The middle of the park actually looks fairly solid with Granit Xhaka and the revitalised Aaron Ramsey. 3 at the back has given Ramsey the chance to get further forward. He is less of a liability in the opponents 3rd of the field than Arsenal’s.

It would be preferable, however, if we also signed someone a bit more defensively minded than Xhaka who can be rotated in for the tougher games where we need a bit more of a defensive shield. Someone who is physical but can also cover a lot of ground. Basically a better Coquelin.

No names spring to mind, however a strong central midfielder is a must. Add Mohammed Elneny into the mix alongside a returning Jack Wilshere and it would leave us with 5 solid players for 2 positions. The formation change does however signal the end of Santi Cazorla’s Arsenal career, and Francis Coquelin is simply not good enough.

We play with a narrow 2 behind the striker, rather than a wide two. Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil have excelled since the change. Your two best players playing close to each other has left teams chasing shadows. They can not isolate one when they have the ball as the other is always close by.

Both players have played a lot of their career out wide, so have also been able to help the wing backs out when the ball is in the wider positions. Where we are perhaps short is in their back up.

Alex Iwobi has fallen out of favour after a good start to his Arsenal career, whilst Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere could do a job behind a striker, but would also be needed in the middle of the park. Signing a player of the calibre of Isco would give Arsenal 3 brilliant options in the 2 positions, whilst also freeing Sanchez up to potentially return up top. The aforementioned Iwobi completes the options.

We are still in need for a new striker. Olivier Grioud is simply too immobile to play in the formation, whilst Danny Welbeck has all the physical attributes but is simply not a consistent goal scorer. Up top we need someone who has the physicality to play on his own, the pace to run in behind, the work rate to close down, and a sharp finisher. Not too much then!

Kylian Mbappe would tick a lot of boxes, but at £85m+, it is crazy money for an 18 year old who has been a first team regular for barley 6 months. If we are looking to spend that big, it potentially brings the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mauro Icardi into the frame. Any of these 3 would cost a big chunk of cash, but would also be a dramatic improvement on what we already have.

Arsenal would also have Alexis Sanchez as an option, and then Danny Welbeck and Yaya Sanogo (I jest) as back up.

A permanent move to 3-2-4-1 leaves us needing 6 new signings. 4 of which would be 1st team player. Just typing and speaking out loud as I type, that feels like too many players for the starting XI.

It is also hard to see how the likes of Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud would fit into the new formation. Walcott and Giroud have already struggled for game time (are they injured), whilst Cazorla would get over run in a midfield two.

If we do stick to 3-4-2-1, some serious investment would be needed in the summer. And hopefully it is invested better than last summer.

Keenos