Done deal! Was Arsenal wrong to sell Szczesny to Juventus?

The Poland international keeper Wojciech Szczesny has finally completed the long expected transfer away from Arsenal, the club he joined as a promising teenager back in 2005 after supporting them as a boy. It was clearly a tough decision for this self-confessed Gooner to leave the club he loves, so while I wish him well for the future I cannot help but wonder what went wrong.

It was clearly not a lack of ability because in joining the Serie A champions Juventus, Szczesny has signed for one of the biggest and most successful sides in the football world. I can also understand why he felt that he needed to leave Arsenal to gain the regular first team football all young players need and he certainly did that in his two years at Serie A’s Roma.

But what I do not get is that he has now gone to Juventus where he will be second choice to Buffon, at least for a while. At the same time there are rumours that David Ospina might leave Arsenal so why did Wenger not persuade Szczesny to try again to be the first choice for Arsenal?

Did the boss not give him enough of a chance in the first place maybe? Were we too quick to jump on an error or two instead of letting him learn from them? Or was it just one of those things and nobody is really to blame? What do you guys make of it all?

Sam P.

20 Comments

  1. It seems most people forgot how terrible Szczesny was for us. Most of you I bet don’t watch when he was playing for Roma either right? You all just go by what the media said? Well I have and honestly he hasn’t improved that much in the two years as the media would have you believe. He still drops pretty simple catches, sometimes does some crazy stuff. It was Rudiger and Manolas who saved his butt multiple times in the last 2 years. Just give it 2 years and i bet Juventus is going to bring in another keeper to replace him.

    1. Then of course Juventus will be stupid to sign him because he’s nothing special.After all they’re a lot of good keepers who hardly make mistakes and the world class saves.Why then did they sign him?As for you taking about Rudiger and Manolas saving him so many times well at times but not like how you mean it.If I quite remember the AS Roma defence was absolutely shite in his first season.It’s this season that they’ve really improved.He’ll eventually prove everyone wrong just like I said to years ago.Now I’ve been vindicated when I said he was better than Ospina.I hope if he ever gets the chance to come back he turns us down so that it would pain a lot of people.Watch him become a legend at Juventus.After all it’s not you that can deny him his greatness.

    2. I watched Roma and kept him in my team, but I agree, he has not improved too much that Arsenal can keep him for ages. We cut losses by 2 years loan and 10m sale

    3. He also had attitude problems – smoking in the changing room, arrogance, Dad criticising Wenger. Players with a negative impact on the club through media channels normally get phased out.

    1. You must have watched a different Szczesny to the one I saw playing for Roma. He has now turne into a world class keeper with the most clean sheets in Serie A. It is sheer lunacy to have let him leave as we are now left with an ageing Cech and an average Ospina and inexperienced Martinez. Possibly this is the worst decision that Wenger has ever made as he showed no desire to leave. This almost negates the great signing of Lacazette.

    2. agree
      no matter what board, owner and AW say, Arsenal dont have financial strength of City, Chelsea and Manu. sell 8 players and buy 2 quality ones. keep Sanchez

    3. Guy this is about him so why stop the chat go to transfer article if your not happy with the reading here.

  2. Let’s face it goalkeepers tend to march to the beat of a different drum and Szczesny certainly fell into that category, but most of his antics were relatively harmless and simply reflected a certain level of immaturity that isn’t uncommon for someone thrust into the limelight at such a young age…lord knows we’ve seen that happen with numerous players throughout the years and very few were ever banished for such behaviour…the only on-field action that drove me crazy was his inability to take a deep breath and not try to rush the play with an ill-timed throw at certain points in the game when common sense suggested holding the ball and slowing things down…the fact that he continued to do this probably had a lot to do with the glaring lack of coaching time spent with the goalkeepers…ultimately he made the fateful decision to take his frustrations out into the public sphere and paid dearly for it…in the end, his services were wanted by several of the best Italian squads, which is significant considering the historical importance placed on the defensive side of the ball in Serie A…all I know is that if someone asked me to pick the most athletically gifted goalkeeper we have had in our squad since the arrival of Wenger, without hesitation, he would be my pick and for that reason his departure is more than a little disappointing…what else is new though

  3. He never reached his full capacity at Arsenal let alone exceed it, I don’t see why we should keep him any longer. I think Arsene will keep Ospina. By the way, Emi Martinez looked promising last night. He knew how to read penalty kick, not just guessing. He read 3 kicks out of 5 and save two of it. That’s rare ability, even for his senior Petr Cech. Emiliano should have more playing times maybe even ahead of Ospina.

  4. I think it was a mistake.
    I liked the way he commanded the air in the box.
    Would love him to take over for Cech

    JMHO

  5. Ok Only time will tell. But the decision is not bad considering that we have 3 Goal Keepers already . We have martinez who is doing good , I think Wenger will not Ospina go this summer and next Summer Ospinai will be number one as Czec will become Old.
    So Currently Schzenny is no 3 if he had came back to Arsenal, where as in Juve, he would be no 2. So not a bad from hus point of View.

    But if he still loves Arsenal , then let say in 3 to 4 years if he really become best then we can lure him to Emirates by Paying let say 3 times the money that we received now

  6. Would Arsenal miss him in the pitch? Not really.
    Would Arsenal miss him off the pitch? Yes a bit.

  7. He didn’t do to we’ll with us, he improved on his 2 year loan away but no enough to justify keeping him..I do wish him well tho you can tell he loves you club and is a real fan…watched interview and read his message and it did show he wore (and wanted to keep wearing) that arsenal shirt with pride…

    Thanks Szczensy we will hopefully. See you one day soon in the Champions League

  8. I still believe we should get another young keeper…people will say we have Martinez..don’t get me wrong he looks okay but he has been with us for many years and never broke into the first team…he is only playing there now tbh because we getting rid of no keepers…If we can afford it (after the player clear out we are having) I would want Lafont…the kind looks really good and he can learn from both Cech and Lehmann on how to take it to the next level…not saying sell Martinez keep.him have him learn aswell and we could beat the buck and have our First and Second choice keep ready to take over in the next 2 season (I say 2 cause that’s how many good season in think Cech has in him )

    1. Interesting you bring the 2 GK coachs i wonder why Wenger didnt try get Cech to stay on and take the coaching job.
      Maybe he plans a lot more time between the sticks than we think and thats why Szczesny has left.

      1. And they still for relegated…he didn’t make an impact just in general he did okay…he is a player that can play in Palace not for us tbh

  9. I’m guessing they wanted to keep him, but couldn’t promise first team football, so he said naaaah, Imma bugger off.

  10. Quote me anywhere, we are gonna regret his sales. He hasn’t improved because he wasn’t getting a good partner to train with, train him with Petr cech or Buffon and see how he improve in a year or 2. This same thing happened to Walcott and most of our young stars. We sold all experience players, no one to learn from.

  11. For his loyalty and heart for Arsenal, I respect him really. And I wish him well in his new club…

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