So hey. How’s your day going?
I’m still basking in the glow of the FA cup win, still monumentally pissed that Wilshere was charged (like WTF) and still excited for what is to come. So what do we have now?
Apparently over the course of the season people have been going on and on about the goalkeeping situation with reports that Cech will be available this summer. Arsenal fans have been divided over what they want and so on and I feel I should give my two cents.
I accept that my two cents might not mean much and might not be accepted by a bunch of people, but it is my two cents no?
So Szczesney says he wants to stay and that brings to fore the question: Do we need another keeper for the new season?
Many will say yes. I have seen arguments stating that we need a world class goalie to make us challengers, keepers that can single handedly win us games or save us points and so on and no one is convinced we have that in Szczesny and Ospina.
For a while I also thought this was the way to go. This was mostly because Szczesny wasn’t getting much playing time and many are still a little skittish about Ospina (myself included). I have seen the stats, the saves per game for Ospina and they are good, like really, really good, but I still worry. Maybe it’s cos of his height, or the way he goes about things or whatever but I still get a bit worried.
Now here’s the thing; we seem to have short memories. Szczesny won the golden glove (alongside Cech) two seasons ago and while a lot of time has passed between then and now i don’t think Szczesny is a bad keeper. I for one feels he needs an extended run in the team to get back to it.
I think Szczesny should stay and I feel we shouldn’t go for another.
Hear me out. This is partly sentimental and partly practical. The truth is this; if we get another goalkeeper, Szczesny leaves therefore those who are of the argument that Cech should come in and Szczesny could learn under him are kidding, that’s not going to happen.
Szczesny is young (in keeper years) and could continue to grow and many seem to underestimate the influence that keeping for your beloved club could have. We go on and on about player loyalty and how they have none and here we have a player who wants to stay. We have raged on the Van Persies, the Cescs and the Nasris and here we have someone who wants to stay and yet we are taking that for granted.
I concede that having a player like Cech who has won things would be an advantage. No doubt, but having a Szczesny grow with a group of players who are getting the taste and habit of winning things could be just as effective. Szczesny is tall, has a good leap, can command his penalty box and the aspects of his game that needs working on are things that CAN be worked on.
Ospina isn’t going to grow any taller, therefore he’s never going to be as commanding in the box as the pole is. His kicking isn’t as good as the pole’s either with most of them never getting past the halfway line. Szczesny has now been involved in a final in which he won, so the 2011 ghosts should be banished by now.
All this is not to say Ospina is no good, he is, which is why I think the both of them could serve us for next season. Now many would look at Szczesny’s form at the start of the season, but then again he had the misfortune of playing behind a makeshift defense. That can’t have helped him. It’s not like he was dropping clangers every other week. I wager that if Szczesny had played behind a more settled defense as Ospina did from January, he’ll have done as well if not better than the Colombian.
If we buy astutely in the market, a helper for Coquelin and another attacker, then this might be something we even need to worry about.
Szczesny wants to stay…I say we should let him
Till later
