Arsène Wenger is planning changes to his first-team goalkeeping options, but any potential shake up will not affect Reserve team prospects Wojciech Szczęsny and Vito Mannone.
The youngsters are tied to long-term contracts at the club and Wenger did meet with both before the World Cup. The Frenchman has previously been linked with a selection of goalkeepers, all varying in age. However, it’s expected that any transfer he does make, would only be short term. The ideal situation is for a vastly experienced glovesman to be signed for one or two seasons, allowing Szczęsny and Mannone chance to gain match time on loan. Many believe Mark Schwarzer could be that player, with his agent holding talks with the Gunners recently.
Wojciech and Vito have returned to pre-season training and Ivan Gazidis is in negotiations with a large number of club’s over loan spells for the two. A verdict on where or if they go is expected when Wenger returns from television duty in South Africa, but it remains clear that the pair are very much the long term future of Arsenal.
Youth team stoppers James Shea and Sean McDermott have also recently signed new contracts, but they are not seen as feasible options for the first-team at present.
Fantastic news, I’ve been saying all summer that signing a short-term keeper like Schwarzer so Vito or Szczesny can be ready in a couple years is our best move, but no one else seemed to agree with me!
A genuine question: has Mannone ever showed true potential to be a topclass keeper? He looked okay the few times I’ve seen him, but the reports from the reserves from various sources don’t really fill me with confidence.
well I will ask you to watch our game against Fullham not for the reserves but the first team
Vito is a brilliant keeper but Szczęsny is a class above everyone else
I was going to say the same as Andrew. Just watch that game dude
Don’t think its fair to use the Fulham game. For one thing, its just one game, and secondly all those saves were down to instinctive shot stopping. An essential part of a keepers Arsenal no doubt, but its the kind of thing we have seen time and again from Almunia and Fabianski and we don’t consider either of them world class do we?
Its the controlling of the six yard area, knowing how to set a wall, when and when not to come off your line, when its safe to punch and having the bravery to catch.
Frankly Vito hasn’t played enough to display any of those qualities to be fair to him, but that is what makes a good keeper. Still I can’t believe that Wenger is willing to bank on a youth with potential with our young Pole. Don’t care how good he looks, go for experience now. Just sign Frey. If our Pole is that good he will come through anyway.
yes the Fulham game he was amazing but the next few game he has done few error and Almunia got his place back a his place .i don’t think Mannone is any good, decent yes but we have already decent Gk in Almunia and Fabianski.Szcesni need to go to a bigger club than Brentford, in the championship if possible or a top division outside England.
If Mannone and Szczęsny go out on loan
then Fabianski will become no.3 and almunia no.2
its not a bad thing but I want Fabianski to go out on loan. He needs to play week in and week out I really think this boy has talent he just needs to play regularly for a team
The question is, who would take him after those awful mistakes?
didnt birmingham just buy foster who made worse mistakes than Fabianski?
it doesnt have to be a PL it can be a championship and overseason side as long as he’s getting regular playing time
J forgot to ask can u confirm where these players might go on loan to a championship side or maybe even a PL side. Mannone can even go to loan for a Serie A side
Hey andrew,
I did watch the game at the time, and he did make unbelievable saves that day.
But even then I seem to remember him not being very commanding on high balls, punching rather then catching…
Ofcourse, that’s asking a lot from a young goalkeeper and maybe it were just nerves, that’s why I am asking people who have seen him play a lot.
I believe someone like Fabianski has a lot of talent, he made some magnificent saves himself, but mentality is so important for a goalkeeper. He just looks like a nervous wreck when he gets a shot.
That’s what I like about Szczęsny , he comes across as a very confident nutter who loves the physical part, which is always a plus as a goalkeeper. Unfortunately he is still extremely young for a keeper.
i heard from a trusted and connected arsenal source that shwarzer is there for the taking if we want him. Apparently the delay is due to arshavin. The story is that we want arshavin out – as well as his constant blabbing to the media, he is apparently not well liked in the dressing room. The rumour is that man city want him, and are prepared to offer joe hart in the deal, thats what we’re waiting for before signing shwarzer – make of it what you will.
so wenger will buy for arshavin probably honda or ozil? it is said ozil already agreed terms with us!!!
you’re source is high on something
I like Arshavin but he does seem like a bit of an ass, if he goes,however, we then need to get someone like Ozil or J cole or Van der Vaart. Personally I would prefer VDV purely for his workmanship. We lack that in our team. Don’t get me wrong Arshavin is brillant but only when he wants to be and I would gladly take Joe Hart and a barrel of cash for him, if he is being disruptive in the dressing room.
I think he is one of those players that speaks the first thing that comes in his mind
a lot of things are made up though so dont read into everything but yeah he needs to think before he speaks
He’s Russian! Of course he won’t think before he speaks, that’s just the way they are – very open about their views and their emotions. I’m actually in St. Petersburg now and they’re certainly not a shy and retiring lot. Not saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s the Russian way. So I agree that Arshavin should probably keep his mouth shut from time to time, but I don’t think it’ll happen to be honest.
Regardless, don’t sell him, he’s too good to sell. Without him we basically just have Nasri and perma-crock Rosicky as natural creative attacking midfielders (and Walcott as a winger). Given that we play with 2 AMs/Wings, we need depth there, and selling Arshavin would not help.
What about that link with the Portuguese eduardo? Surely schwarzer would be a step in the wrong direction. It really bothers me how we’re constantly being linked with average gks like him and jaaskerlainen, who have played for years in the PL and never really impressed that much. They’ve just been decent. Signing players like these and jagielka would just be an admission that we’re not really challenging for the title anymore imo.
Joe hart on the other hand appears to be a very good keeper, and is getting better. Personally Id stick with Szczesny over him, though because he has been with us since young. If City want to buy arshavin, I’d let him go (his comments are annoying, and hes not consistent) and get arda turan. He looks more skillful, more aggressive, faster but still with many of the mental qualities that make arshavin so good.
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i think fabianski and almunia both realise they have lots to do after all the mistakes they made. They cant both really complain that they both have to work very hard just for a spot on the bench first, then take it from there. And they will fully realise they have 2 young keepers ready to take their place.
They could fight or realise that they are done. This could be Almunias last season for us and I wont be too sad to see him go.
I dont anything will be sad with either one of them going but I think Fabianski was a gem that never turned into a diamond
I have seen him for Legia Warsaw and what a player he was for them
don’t think*
I think Schwarzer is better than Almunia but he is still a pretty average keeper. Did you see the errors he made in the world cup?
I like the look of Szczęsny but hope we don’t throw him in to early. We really missed an opportunity with Shay Given. He would have been perfect
Sir Chesney should definitely be #1 in a few seasons, he is much more the full article than Mannone IMO.
In a fancy dreamland where we bought top players and he was fit, Buffon would fit the bill. Schwarzer is little progress from Almunia & Fabianski tbh. Will be interesting to see what Wenger says/does over the next month.
Its all true that BOTH of them made terrible mistakes but did we quickly forget the best saves they have made. How many other keepers are as perfect and faultless. Come on guys, Almunia is not bad after all. I wud say keep to give him another chance instead of crucifying him.
I will rate Aluminia the worst among his equals.Aluminia is a keeper with a top class club like Arsenal. If you want rate his performace you compare him with his compartriate like vandarser, pepe Reina, Peter Cech those are the club that are in arsenal class. I dont think i will miss him if he lives. Contracting swartzer on a short term basis say 2 yrs will not be bad idea thereby giving Szczęsny more time to gain some more experience on loan will be good. i see him as the next David Seaman.
@ Sammi – comparing almunia to those other keepers, hes not actually been much worse than them over the last few years!
VDS and cech have made tonnes of mistakes in that time, they just seem able to recover from their mistakes more convincingly. Remember 07/08? Almunia was almost faultless in that season, he was excellent. Imo we were the best team and would have won the title if it werent for the eduardo injury, which was just one too many – and almunia was our keeper. That tells me he has it in him to be a title-winning goalkeeper. We havent really had our defense properly sorted since then, and almunias confidence seems to have dropped, but he does have the talent to be a top keeper. (He should still leave imo because he has dropped since ’08, but hes not as terrible as many ppl seem to think)
Hmmm, giving Almunia another chance is the one thing I don’t want us to do.
Granted, he had a good 08-09, but he needs to play out of his skin to just be a solid PL-keeper. And last year proved he isn’t able to consistently do that. Have him stay as back-up would be fine by me though. All of our other keepers need gametime.
well said jozef, maybe keeping him as a back up will do. anyone with some close source regarding our standing with eduardo. to me, he is far better than schwarzer, let alone being years his ( schwarzer ) junior. i wud be nice to add his name in our team.
Both keeper thwarted arsenal frm lifting cup dis season by their silly mistakes.
Between Wojciech/manone one shud b retain n d other one 2 go on loan.
Schwarzar is about the same as almunia!!
I’m really disappointed in wenger on how he let that portuguese keeper eduardo go to genoa for peanuts! When he’d obviously prefer to come to us!! He’s a world class keeper! What can sczezesny learn from an average almunia/schwarzer? Nothing he needs to get help from a world class keeper!!
And that’s not even including calculatiions on how many points a world class keeper will save us during the next campaign! And how much stronger it would have made our defense! As it resonates confidence!
But let’s see what wenger does in regards to our most serious problem!! Between the sticks!!! (Our second problem is defensive training/strategies!!!)
Every spainsh player has been running their hearts out to close down the opposition, world class players puttin in 110% effort! But I don’t see arsenal closing down like that! And we play there same offensive approach!
Anyway hope next season aint exactly the same as the last five! Come on arsenal!!
Bigsix, The Portugal keeper Eduardo has signed for Genoa, thats what skysports are reporting
i know we have a great future in terms of goalkeeping but who will grow to be our number 1?
errors are always part of growing up in whatever aspect of life.What arsenal is doing i think is beyond wisdom coz fabianski is a huge talent and almunia is too!all they need is an ultimatum n i think wenger has decided to give them esp almunia only this season to proove their worth.think of it this way:schwarzer comes in n takes over as number 1:almunia and fabianski are demoted one position down,trust me they’ll fight with every ounce of energy to get play time and if and when they do get some they’ll be out to prove just how talented n worthy they are of the number one jersey at the mighty fortress:Emirates.this done consistently for a max of 2 years will bring out the best in our goalkeeping talent and then schwarzers contract will have come to an almost end n then wosciezny n mannone will be recalled back to the emirates n believe me:all the action will be at london colney if you know what i mean!
I reckon that if Almunia changed his hair back to the blonde locks – like Canizares – he’d be a legend again. It is no coincidence that he played the best when he had that haircut….
Petition FIFA – Make him change it back!
Almunia against Barca in champions league first leg was brillant. He kept us in that game all on his own, however, the second leg he was awful. That’s what I hate about Almunia, he is not consistent. We need a keeper that control’s his area and turn’s out a good to great perfomance every week. I just can’t see Almunia ever becoming a consistent GK.
Schwarzer would be an excellent signing for a few reasons..
Hes experienced enough to deal with the pressures of playing for a big club, something almunia and fabianski have struggled to deal with.
Because of his age he’ll only be here for just enough time to bed chesney in. He’d also be a a good role model for chesney as he’s very professional and hes been there done that (world cups and europe etc.)
and.. he wont need time to learn the language ( which that eduardo) would have, meaning he can come in and open his mouth from the start.. which is what we really need from a keeper. someone to organise.. which szhwarzer is extremely good at.
IMO he’d be an excellent short term measure
Agree 100%, Schwarzer is a superb fit for us at this moment.
When has he ever shown he can handle the pressure of a big club? He only played three games in the world cup and he was one of the keepers to make a mistake! Im not saying that means he can’t do it, but its hardly a sure thing. IMO he is no better than almunia. Eduardo is the only keeper we’ve been linked with, who seems like a realistic option, who Id like to see us go for. Otherwise szczesny should be given a shot imo.
With Eduardo already signing for Genoa and Hart’s move unlikely, I’d love Schwarzer to come. He’s got experience, class and consistency. He would arrive on the cheap and because its would only be short term, it would allow Mannone, Szczesney and even Fabianski to settle in good stead.
As for the defensive side, an Arsenal.com article confirms that Wenger is STILL on the market for another centre back, so it looks like Nordtveit will have to do with just the Carling Cup for now.
That’s Eduardo the Portuguese goalkeeper.
not a CB but a defensive player …
IMPORTANT.
Sorry J mate, but these quotes are listed from The Standard and today Arsenal.com have confirmed that Wenger NEVER said these things and that we will not expect a goalkeeping announcement after the World Cup.
it isnt said we will not sign a GK. on arsenal.com he said there will be more reinforcements!!!
This interview is taken from a Kenyan website… and its fake
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/arsene-wenger-interview-a-clarification
read nothing into this interview, sorry guys
Is there any truth in the Handanovic rumours
I doubt it
http://www.fulham-mad.co.uk/news/tmnw/schwarzers_ready_for_arsenal_move_536321/index.shtml
I dont believe it will be proper to send Vito and Szczsny on loan. Let them be with the club and one assigned to caring cup while the other handles FA cup. By so we will ensure they feature always in matches against experienced sides.
Trouble is they wouldn’t play enough. It’s not even like they could both play in the reserves – there’s only 1 spot for a reserve goalkeeper and two of them. Plus, the FA Cup actually MEANS something. I for one care about it, particularly after 5 trophyless seasons. We need to send at least 1 out on loan, possibly both, particularly if Schwarzer or another experienced ‘keeper comes in.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/reserves-news/premier-reserve-league
Common sense prevails! That’s great news I just hope they bring back ATVO reserves live now? Best of luck to AFC!
looks like the reserves aint disbanded!
Over-zealous media these days is rampant everywhere!!! Sorry..but look something positive came out of it.
“New Reserve League format announced”.. hey j is this true that we are still there in the reserve league.. http://www.arsenal.com/news/reserves-news/premier-reserve-league .. did we change our decision yo disband reserves..??
how can you ask J if this is true if it is on the official arsenal website? seriously man
jv, it was j who reported we are disbanding our reserves but now it looks like officially we are in the reserve league
hey j i m sure you would have checked this.. http://www.arsenal.com/news/reserves-news/premier-reserve-league .. we still there in the reserves league..????
Actually the official Arsenal site also had an article which said they had quit the reserve league. I’m not sure why they have changed the decision but it looks like they’ve changed it. Really strange stuff.
I wonder which youngsters will be given a chance within the friendly against barnet in 7 days time. Possibly bartley, lansbury, barazite and some surprises?
any news on assulin? it is said chelksi and we made offers for him!!!
So are we back in the reserves league now?? I kind of hope that we are.
Wenger has spent most of the past month in South Africa scouting players and working for French television, but would ideally like to complete his transfer business during the next week ahead of Arsenal’s pre-season training camp in Austria.
He has already secured two of his major targets in striker Marouane Chamakh and centre-back Laurent Koscielny, but wants to add one more defender and a new goalkeeper. Talks are also now expected with Cole, although his arrival is understood to be dependent on the sale of another attacking player, probably Eduardo.
Arsenal have already been knocked back once by Fulham over Schwarzer but, after the departure of Roy Hodgson to Liverpool, there is hope that a deal can be pushed through in the coming days. At 37, Schwarzer would be a relatively short-term solution to the goalkeeping mistakes that cost Arsenal last season, with Wenger retaining considerable faith in his younger keepers. There is particular hope that 20 year-old Poland international Wojciech Szczesny will emerge in the longer-term. The interest in Schwarzer is bad news, however, for Manuel Almunia, who had a difficult season both personally and professionally and has been linked with a move back to Spain.
Despite spending £8.5 million on recruiting Koscielny from French club Lorient, Wenger also wants to add one more defender to his squad before the transfer window closes.
William Gallas, Philippe Senderos and Mikael Silvestre have all departed since the end of last season, while Sol Campbell will not make a final decision on the offer of a one-year contract until he returns from his honeymoon. Germany defender Serdar Tasci has emerged as an option and has publicly expressed his admiration for Wenger.
“It is not over, we are still open to buy,” said Wenger. “We are still on the market for another defensive player because we have the need for one more.” Wenger is also confident that a recurrence of Nicklas Bendtner’s groin injury is not serious.
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“We have to feel very proud of each of the members of this squad, from the first to the last.” Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas came on in the second half of normal time to give Spain extra impetus and it was his pass which created Iniesta’s goal.
“It’s a great moment for me and for everyone Spanish, the players, the people. We are all very proud of this,” he said.
“We never thought we could make it and this is something special. When I came on, I was fired up.
“It is has been a difficult tournament for me and I didn’t get to play so much.
“Something inside me was telling me this was my chance. All my family wanted to come and be part of this, I had my chance and I am just very proud to be part of this.
“It has been a hard season, but now it doesn’t matter at all. This is one of the best moments of my life. “Today we are living the dream.” But there was also a tinge of sadness for Fabregas as he had to console club team-mate and Dutch forward Robin van Persie.
“The first thing I had to do after the final whistle was go to Robin. Instead of celebrating with my friends, I wanted to talk to Robin, because I felt he deserved this as well.
“He has been injured a lot and if it wasn’t us he was playing against, it would have been different.
“But as happy as I was, I was also sad for him. He deserved it as well. He just told me congratulations and to enjoy the moment.
“I hope he has has his chance again, because he is a great guy and a great leader.
“He has been really unlucky with injuries and I hope he can have his moment in four years or two years.” However, Fabregas believes Van Persie may have to wait longer given the next generation of talent coming off the Spanish production line.
“We have great players who are coming through and Spanish football is just growing,” he added.
“This is the best thing which can happen to a football player. You can’t win something bigger.” As for where he will be playing next season, Barcelona target Fabregas was ambiguous.
“All I can say is that this is for all the Arsenal players and fans, they are a world-class club. I am an Arsenal player and I am proud to be.”
wow best thing I have heard this summer
Looked @ the new reserves league format it looks a much better product to me?
Less games (I think but not actually counted them) but more intensity with the upgrade in teams now to play that has to be good for the players, shame not all games will now be seen @ Underhill, this needs looking @ if you ask me.
If it’s an issue of not getting good playing conditions @ Underhill @ certain times of the season, as has been said I’m sure the odd bigger game could be arranged & played @ the Emirates as we do with the youth team cup games. cos some of theses games pack a lot in @ times & that’s with poor advertising for the games so this could also be improved…
When was the last time a goalkeeper won a game for Arsenal? Arsenal versus Birmingham City, how about that for a preview of Vito’s performance. Check that save before Arshavin’s winning Goal. Tell me What you think Guys?
There’s still nothing on Genoa’s official site about Eduardo. Maybe because it’s a crappy-looking site, but maybe because things are still up in the air? Anyway, please not Schwarzer or Frey. The fact that we didn’t go for them earlier but instead have been trying for Eduardo and perhaps Hart suggests that Wenger quite rightly isn’t that keen.
Almunia would be a decent reliable number 2, and I think Fabi should go on loan, if a suitable club can be found, to see if he can repair his shattered confidence. Not that optimistic myself, but I agree he looked a great talent when he first came.
i dont no why i dont rate manonne better then fabianski! there was only one goal keeper who has impressed me this world cup mr eduardo for portugal but he gone! just hope we have someone that can claim a ball this season them cheap goals wasent nice to see!