Keep or sell – Wojciech Szczesny by PR
Our Polish keeper Wojciech Szczesny has been at Arsenal for ten years since becoming a youth player at the age of 16. He was given a professional contract three years later and made his League Cup debut on the 22nd September 2009, keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 home win against West Brom. After that game Wenger announced that the Pole would be a future Number One at the club.
And so it proved with the Pole going on to make 132 appearances for Arsenal and sharing the Golden Glove trophy with Petr Cech in 2013/14 after keeping 16 clean sheets. But the following season he was considered to be not quite good enough for the first team and after a couple of basic mistakes against Southampton on New Years Day it appeared that Wenger had had enough of his antics and he was dropped in favour of David Ospina. With perfect bad timing Szczesny was also caught smoking in the showers after the game and was given a massive fine and left out in the cold.
Obviously once Petr Cech arrived it was certain that Szczesny’s first team place was nonexistent, especially as Ospina had performed so admirably when he was given his chance to impress.
He was sent on loan to Roma this season, where he seems to have gained the trust of the Italians and now seems confirmed as first choice for this season, but Roma have already lined up a replacement for next season and it looks like the Polish international will be returning to the Emirates this summer.
There are rumours that Roma want to extend his loan but Szczesny himself, as usual, proclaims himself as an Arsenal player through and through and is willing to return and fight for his place. It is possible that David Ospina will be moving on at the end of this campaign, in which case we could bring Szczesny back as Petr Cech’s understudy.
But do Arsenal fans want him back?
Peter