Wojciech Szczęsny is in contention to be Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper. Arsène Wenger confirmed during his press conference ahead of the Gunners’ friendly against Legia Warsaw tomorrow that he has no plans to add to his ‘keeping fraternity.
Wenger has three first-team places up for grabs while one of his four options will go out on loan. Szczęsny has previously confirmed his desire to leave if he’s not first-choice, but the Frenchman wants 22-year-old Vito Mannone to get match action. Both Vito and Wojciech were excellent during Arsenal’s members day on Thursday, with Szczęsny’s unorthodox effort in the cross bar challenge proving a huge hit.
You can watch the video below.
I can’t believe he isn’t buying a new keeper. Awful, awful decision.
I’m 99% percent sure that Fabby will be our first choice against Liverpool with Mannone going out on loan.
It has to be Szczesny who goes on loan. It makes no sense to let our most promising keeper rot on the bench. Although it would be best to have both getting more experience on loan, we’ll only send one so it should be Szczesny. He more than Mannone has the potential to be our number one if gets enough experience.
FLAPPY has no real chance at starting.
Just read this and i can’t make head nor tail of it. A title challenging team needs a top top keeper at a number of clubs have keepers better than ours and that is embarrassing.
Unbelievable really if this is the case. The keeper situation made Arsenal a bit of a laughing stock towards the end of last season and I really don’t understand the argument for not bringing in a new keeper. Astonishing really.
Bollocks. He is, like Goonerholic says, in a prezzer in Poland with Fabianski at his side. What do you expect him to say? I think Almunia out, Schwarzer in… And we will see who is no 1.
just saw a comment on youtube asking how RVP did in the challenge quote “his best skill is hitting the post” lol
The world champion crossbar challenge comes also from the Netherlands. His name is Van den Bergh. He shoot many, many times against the crossbar. Some time twice in a match. Here a movie from Van den berg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPBoPhD5Sos
lol…I dnt know if he does it intentionally, it’s really amazing.
I don’t think Szczesny is in contention:
“Wojciech is a goalkeeper of huge quality. At the moment we want to play for the title so I believe he needs some more experience to compete directly for the first goalkeeper position.”
That almost certainly implies he’ll be the one out on loan. As for going into the season with Fabianski, Almunia and Mannone – that is just shocking if true. None of those 3 can hold down the number 1 spot at present, and 2 of them need to be got rid of.
I don’t read it that way. It implies he won’t be the starting goal keeper or even second choice. He may be the one who sticks around and never plays, or he may be the one who goes on loan.
I know he has very little experience, but keepers like Casillas started at 19/20, so why not Tech9? He has the confidence, and the voice, and he’s clearly popular within the ranks.
Giving him the game against Legia would be a good start.
Szczesny has to, has to play the FULL fucking match against Legia Warsaw!! He better or else i’m going to be royally pissed off. I wouldn’t get my hopes up because I know Flapper will lay at least a half because this is his old club. Wenger has gotten this ine wrong in my opinion. Unless Almunia can play as well as he did 3 years ago in 07-08, we haven’t a hpoe in hell in goals. We’ll have to score 5 bloddy goals a match just to compensate for all the comical errors that will surely occur. I am usually the 1st to defend Wenger. He BETTER know something that we don’t, or else this makes no sense at all.
You are wrong. Relax.
Well I was excited for the new season to start, but that excitement disappeared as soon as I read the article on the club website.
Basically Tottenham and Manchester City have a first and second choice keeper better than any of ours in Gomes, Cudicini, Given and Hart respectively. These are two teams not even in the “big 4”. On to the big 4 and Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool all have world class goal keepers, yet we don’t. We don’t even have a number one.
Wenger is yet to even decide a week before the league. Is he serious ? Was this not one of Capello’s problems in South Africa.
I can’t even make sense of the situation. I am lost and don’t see how any one at the club can think we will be able to challenge for anything this year.
If football was just about the attack then great we would have no problem, but its not.
I could actually cry because we are out of contention for any silverware once again and a ball is yet to be kicked.
Oh FFS get a grip mate!
daspecimen thinks he is wenger TOP TOP KEEPER,,who are boy chesney is good enough now fuck 2-3 years time,,you are an idiot
you might want to lay of the shandy mate.
chesney appears to have all the qualities of a top keeper, but is still unproven at any level above league 1. in fact, todays friendly will tell us more than we have seen from him all pre season because he hasn’t had a thing to do yet.
I would sooner he got a season long grounding in the championship, and then maybe a 6 month spell in the premier league before he was competing for the number 1 slot at Arsenal.
In some positions if he’s good enough, he’s old enough but he’s not really been pressure tested yet and lacks the experience at this level and that’s where Fabianski and Almunia fall down. They have some good qualities but crack when the pressure is on.
I think it’s different in all other positions because when Fabregas caame through, he was playing alongside Gilberto Silva. We barely have confidence in the people in front of the keeper, so to put a rookie keeper in the sticks is asking for trouble at this stage I feel
Fuk this wenger, how can he not get a keeper in after seeing the horrendous mistakes which cost us so many points over the season, why can he not see it is so simple, get frey, tell flappyanski and almunia 2 fuk the fuk off, and so what if your expert judgement has gone a bit wrong with these 2 but it will be worse if he carries on with them, i think this has got more to do with his pride than anything.
The reason we do not have a bloody new keeper is because everyone constantly bangs on about it which results in wenger having to prove everyone wrong by keeping these clowns between the sticks. This is the same bloody thing when we needed a striker and because everyone constantly banging on that we defo needed a striker which was so plain to see wenger thought oh no let me prove evryone wrong and put a midget upfront. Te man is clearly insane and its hard for me to say that about wenger especially with all the things he has done for the club but does that mean we should just allow him to do anything he pleases with the club.
If this is true, Arsenal’s season is over before it even began.
Even Sunderland have a better keeper than us.
I think ppl are jumping on the goalkeeper bandwagon.
fabianski and alamunia are 2 quality goalkeepers.
Fabianski hasnt had a run of games hes had an odd game in the carling cup, fa cup, champions league he hasnt had a run of 10 games.
Almunia is top goalkeeper i can only remeber him making one mistake in the premiership against Birmingham. Hes brillaint at set pieces, coming for crosses, world class reflexes excellent one on one stopper.
Maybe his decision amking could improve.
I beleve our team is too short and not strong enough. I think we need more authority especially when defending corners we have two centre backs who are goood in the air and the rest arent good enough.
You look at chelsea, Man utd they have got alot of taller players in outfield positions apart from centre backs.
I just wish the likes of nasri, wilshere, walcott, fabregas, denilson, rosicky, arshavin were taller it would really help us defend better as a team
Have you ever been to an arsenal match or even seen them on tv? If you had you would of seen almunia make big mistakes in a lot of games and lots of small mistakes in most games, dropping crosses,bad positioning,bad distribution,not orginising his defence,ok good shot stopper but a bad all round goal keeper, you must be the only person in the world apart from wenger and almunia’s mum who thinks he’s any good and as for fabianski, blackburn said before the game what they would do and they did it and they beat us because he was useless, we need a proven goalkeeper otherwise our current goal keepers will cost us more and more points.
Okay fine Fabianski hasn’t had a decent run of games but he still made comical errors oftenly. And yes Almunia is a great shot stopper and, dare I say, a WORLD CLASS penalty saver. But are you kidding when you say he’s good at set pieces? That made me laugh.
Madness if true. This is the reason players like Fab want out of our team: what other top team that actually wants to win would not fix its two biggest weaknesses in the off season? . It makes it difficult for people to believe Wenger still wants to win the title.
you know Victor Valdes was considered Barcelona’s weak link for many many years, right? 2 years ago most people (Barca fans included) would have said Almunia was better than him, no doubt. here’s a 4 minute youtube video of his mistakes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMeYBhGloXk
he’s pretty decent now, I would say. and for people talking about Gomes, don’t you remember how bad he was when he first came to Spurs? check out this article from April 2009:
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/247397/BLACKBURN-2-TOTTENHAM-1.html
first line of the article: “Heurelho Gomes is a goner”. and, of course, we only have to look back to Jens Lehmann to find another keeper who bounced back from his mistakes, in a big way. in case you’ve forgotten:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/4163575.stm
I don’t understand how people can say Wenger has too much faith in his keepers when he dropped our starting keeper from the Invincibles for a backup who had played like 5 matches (and then he did it again 3 years later). I don’t think it’s because he’s just being cheap – he could certainly have signed someone decent like Eduardo for a cheap price. and if you look back through the years, he’s generally preferred experienced keepers. in particular, he left Stuart Taylor on the bench for years even though people were calling him England’s next number one. so I think it would be a big statement of confidence that he’s even giving Fabianski the chance to compete for the #1 shirt…
Well John they are not taller are they.
Brady thats our main problem our height when we defend set pieces we rely on our two centre backs heavily and our goalkeeper.
I feel if we had taller players we would be alot stronger especially at set pieces where we aways look vulnerable.
Joh you are right about the lack of height that we have in the team, BUT you are wrong about the quality of the keepers that we have. In fact you are so full of shit, your eyes must be brown. I mean to call Fabianski a quality keeper right now is crazy. He might become one, but from what I have seen UP TO THIS POINT, he is not a quality keeper yet. Almunia is only a good shot stopper. He doesn’t even know how to command a wall properly during free kicks and he isn’t commanding in any sense of the fucking word. I don’t mean to be insulting and i’m actually not angry with anyone besides Arsene for this,but come on, it’s so bleedin obvious that Flapper and Almunia just aren’t good enough for us. THEY ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR US, THE ARSENAL!!! Why not at least give Szcczesny a chance?? He won’t even consider it. I don’t care about training, see what the fuck he can do during an actual match!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOD DARN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DONT BE SO PESSIMISTIC !! ANYONE WOULD THINK WENGER HAS LOST THE PLOT TOTALLY .WHATS THE POINT IN SPENDING MILLIONS ON A SHORT TERM GAP FILLER WITH A POTENTIAL WORLD CLASS KEEPER IN THE MAKING WITH CHESNEY? SOME FANS HAVNT GOT A CLUE .ITS AMAZING SOME OF THE STUFF PEOPLE COME OUT WITH ON THIS SITE !!
I never comment on this site but love reading other peoples comments!! Alex ferguson, ancelotti, hodgson and even redknapp must be popping the champagne corks tonight after arsene said he will keep faith with almunia and flappy!! what planet is he on??? i dont even see the point of buying any decent defenders!! they lost us at least 12 points last year with blunder after blunder, and it puts all the defenders in two minds if they cant even trust the keeper behind them! micheal rensing free transfer!! timo Hilderbrand free transfer!! even david james (and i cant beleive I am saying that) free transfer any of these would have been better than butter fingers almunia and short and shit flappy!!
SWP
Hildebrand is awful and Rensing is terrible.
James is past it rewatch the germany england game have another look at his positioning and reflexes in that game.
Pingback: Tweets that mention Video – Szczesny’s Cross Bar Challenge + No Keeper Signing | Young Guns - Arsenal Reserves & Youth News -- Topsy.com
How can Wenger expect to challenge for the title when we had one of the weakest defences in the top 10 of the prem last season. We lose 4 cbs, but yet we buy one and another comes bk from injury.
Djourou is injury prone and Kos is untested. We lack leadership at the back and having Calamity Almunia in goal doesnt exactly makes any fan safe, let alone his defenders.
A decent gk gets you at least 10-15 points alone, our gk gives you -15 points. The youngsters like Fabianski, Sczenzy and Mannone arent ready.
I hope come start of the season and Wenger doesnt buy a gk, i pray he doesnt come out with his typical bullshit of ‘we looked around and couldnt find anyone’. well Wenger i can give u a list of GK’s available within you budget;
Schwatzer
Skentleberg
Hart
Volkan Demirel
Akinveev
How do you know they are within our budget? How much will they cost and what’s our budget?
This ain’t Football Manager 2010, you don’t just go and get a keeper that easy… and Schwarzer isn’t available – can’t comment on the rest of your names but I’d suggest they aren’t available either. To suggest Arsenal can just go pluck one of them from their club is to do exactly what Barca tried to do with Cesc!
I’m dissappointed but I’m hardly crying a river either. We were five games short of the title last year and our biggest problem was field players who didn’t give a shit in defense and major injuries to RvP, Cesc and Bendtner. A new top class keeper would always be good but lets not going thinking a keeper solves all our problems!
In Arsene we trust!
“We lost 4 CBs”
Senderos was out on loan the entire season. He doesn’t need to be replaced
As for your goalkeepers, we can never get Hart, and the others are no better than Almunia.
Schwatzer = Al
Skentleberg = Al
Hart = unproved
Volkan Demirel = Al
Akinveev = Fabianski
None of them are better than our GK.
Milo
Almunia has got everything shot stopping and for me is best quality coming under pressure to collect balls.
I dont know what games ppl watch. Almunia is bloody good at coming for crosses especially from corners i have seen him at the emirates catch so many balls under pressure as well from defenders. Hes one of the bravest goalkeepers i have seen as well.
MIlo name 5 goals almunia has conceded which were his mistakes in the premiership?
Fabianski is a young goalkeeper hes had some great games ie west ham fa cup looked commmanding, assured, showed great reflexes and then a stinker against Stoke but lets face it rory delap throw ins are just impossible to defend especially when you dont have 6ft 4 players at the back/
Its unfair to judge fabainski hes needs a proper run i think starting him week in week out could be the making of him.
But in saying that i think szcensy is the best we have got. I rate him as the best 20 goalkeeper in the world.
Hes better than david de gea and casillas at 19 hes needs to be given a chance but wenger said hes needs experience so i guess you can rule him out this season
MAYBE BOB WILSON WILL COME OUT OF RETIREMENT. I SAW HIM THE OTHER DAY AND HE LOOKED PRETTY FIT. MUST BE A BETTER BET THAN HELLMUNIA AND FLAPPIANSKI.
nani at emirates, phillips at birmingham, rose at tottenham, pienaar at emirates, kuyt at anfield….5!
sorry but rose at tottenham????? you just showed how little you know as that was not a mistake!! he cleared the ball a long way when he couldn’t catch it and it was just complete fluke that rose’s shot went in. don’t get me wrong it was a great goal but he couldn’t do it again if he tried.
Almunia doesnt know how to command a wall properly? Come on milo your having one mate.
I think all this almunia bashing is linked with England. He wanted to play for England an ever since he said that the media have been trying to downgrade, take the piss out of him and i think some arsenal fans werent comfortble with the idea as well which is why i think hes gets so much stick.
CALAMITY ALMUNIA? IS THIS A JOKE THE GUY DOESNT MAKE MISTAKES. I HAVE SEEN VAN DER SAAR, SCHWARZER, SORENSEN MAKES MILLIONS OF MISTAKES AT JUVENTUS, FULHAM, SUNDERLAND, ASTON VILLA.
Are u trying to tell me that Almunia is in the same catergory as the names u mentioned? Almunia would not get into the first team for Sunderland, Villa and even Stoke, so why is he good enough for US!
You do not see a long line of teams trying to snatch him up do you?
Milo, I fully agree with you and john i would take up watching rugby because your knowlege of football is poor to say the least!!!
John Almunia just starts waving his hands around pretending to know what he is doing when telling a wall what to do. I watched it at least 2 times in the emirates cup. They didn’t pay one iota of attention to him. They didn’t. Almunia doesn’t know how to come for crosses. He doesn’t EVER, he NEVER EVER CATCHES THE FUCKING CROSS. NEVER. Stop it John. You are the one who is having a laugh.
John, I couldn’t care if Almunia wanted to p[lay for fucking Botswana Land. He stinks like shit and that is all there is to it. Ok he doesn’t stink, but he isn’t good enough for Arsenal. He isn’t. He’s average at best.
another reason why wenger must go.
Dan
I cant believe after all the supporting and argueingn that wenger knows best I am starting to agree with you!! if the world told him almunia and flappy are the best he would then go buy another keeper to prove the world wrong!! the only problem with this we are the ones who suffer from his arogance
Milo wtf
You numpty arsenal have got a new defence almunia what played his 2nd game you think we are going to click straight away?
Almunia is brilliant for coming for crosses thats one of his main strengths hes doesnt flap and he doesnt mis balls from crosses as well.
Hes a good reader of the game almunia. PPl are just jumping on the bandwagon because the media have really been on his back since he said he wasnted to play for England.
Koscielny, vermaelen, djorou its a new defence it needs time to gel especially with the goalkeeper.
MIlo you still havent named me 5 mistakes hes has done this season in the premiership?
we have conceded 41 goals and i can only count almunia has costing us one goal as a result of his mistake
John
you are kidding right?? please tell me you are sitting and laughing due to this been a huge wind up??? next you will be telling us aliens have landed and the queen is actually a flying horse
HOW MANY MISTAKES MAKE A POOR KEEPER?
A lot of Arsenal fans have definitely jumped on the “Almunia is shit” bandwagon started by clueless pundits and papers. Almunia was voted our third best player of the season just 12 months ago, he was being compared with the best of the best and many people were talking him up for England.
He’s had a below average season but was not the disaster that some are making out. The way some fans were trying to find fault with everything he did, looking out for his mistake in every goal we conceded last season was pathetic. He made a few mistakes, just like every goalkeeper does. There aren’t many out there better than him.
Wrenny u are spot on mate. Great post i totally agree what you said. This guy was brilliant two seasons ago and last season despite having sereval personal problems with death of his mother in law (ALA sagna with his brother doesnt look the same player now) and illness hes slowly come back to his best.
I think he could have his best season ever next year hes 33 van der sar is 39, scwharzer is 39 almunia has got another 5 years in him.
Look at lehmann he was brilliant for us he peaked he was older as well
Some people decide a player is no good (for whatever reason) and then stick to that whatever happens. There are still so-called fans saying Bendtner, Eboue, etc are shit and should be sold, and choose to ignore the huge improvements they’ve made because it suits them and their viewpoint. You can’t argue with people like that, they just aren’t rational.
Take Lehmann, he made so many crazy mistakes yet everybody loves him because he also made great saves. So his mistakes were forgiven. Almunia also makes great saves but they are ignored, because “he’s shit”. And if he makes a mistake, those ‘fans’ go “See, I told you he’s shit!” There’s absolutely no sense or reason.
Wrenny i think you made a great point on the pundit thing. Pundits these days are a bunch of numpties especially the ones on skysports and the bbc Stewart robson for me is the best pundit he talks alot of sense and hes right arsenal fans need to lay off almunia hes actually a decent goalkeeper
Ian wright has been slating almunia on talksport saying how bad he is and since then everyone seems to be slating him
The quality of ‘punditry’ and football analysis on british television and radio is awful. They’ll wheel out any gormless ex-player to give his ignorant and baseless opinions, and then treat it as gospel. It’s hilarious the way SkySports will repeat, over and over, sound bytes from guys who were average footballers at best, and many of them failed miserably in coaching or management, as if their opinions are actually worth a damn. You get way more sense out of the fans they interview outside stadiums!
Talksport is the absolute pits. I listened to it once and it just made me cringe, it’s the kind of thing that makes you embarrassed to be a football fan.
the dude gets lobbed so many times i began thinking he was a midget. Mart Poom is temp goalkeeping coach, perhaps that provides insight.
For god sakes there are too many spoilt fans on here.
Arsene wenger must go? is that a joke? The man deserves as much as time as possible after what hes done with arsenal.
Hes done an incredible job with limited resources and still has limited resoruces.
But then again there are too many young arsenal glory hunters who supported arsenal when they started winning things now angry and upset we arent winning things. WELL GUESS WHAT YOU SUPPORT YOUR TEAM THROUGH THICK AND THIN AND SUPPORT THEM WHEN THEY ARE NOT WINNING THINGS.
WILL YOU LOT SUPPORT ARSENAL IF THEY WERE IN LEAGUE 1 AND WINNING NOTHING JUST STAYING MID TABLE?
Ypur all saying what a bad goalkeeper almunia is. Can you lot tell me 5 mistakes he has done in the premiership?
Apparently we conceded 41 goals he must have made 41 mistakes then
nani at emirates, phillips at birmingham, rose at tottenham, pienaar at emirates, kuyt at anfield….5!!
EVERYBODY JUST IGNORE JOHN. I THINK HE’S HAD ONE TO MANY TONIGHT AND IS JUST SEEKING SOME ATTENTION.
YOU ARE CLUELESS MATE. TAKE YOUR DUMBASS/CLUELESS/SHIT/WORTHLESS COMMENT ELSEWHERE, WHERE SOME1 MIGHT AGREE WITH YOU.
ALMUNIA IS TOTAL SHIT AND IF YOU CAN FIND ME 5 PPL WHO AGREE WITH YOU, THEN I WOULD EAT MY SOCKS!!!!!
THE LANGUAGE ON THIS SITE IS VERY RUDE !
DOES ANYONE THINK WE WILL STAY UP THIS YEAR? I FEEL LIKE OUR CHANCES OF A TOP 15 FINISH ARE VERY SLIM.
Totally ignore
DONT IGNORE ME.YOU SHOULD TRY LIVING IN STOKE !
I agree with John
Everyone bangs on about Joe Hart being such a great keeper and want him as our no.1. The facts are Joe Hart is a promising young keeper that makes mistakes, just as many as any of our keepers. He would be no different playing for Arsenal than any of our current crop. Mancini, Hughes, Eriksson, Capello, Mclaren these are just 5 Managers that i can think of who have decided that Joe Hart is not good enough to be their first choice keeper. I guess all the people posting comments on here know more than that crop of of Manager’s?
As for Schwarzer, Lloris, Akinfeev, Marchetti, Stekelenberg and all the other keepers we have been linked with are this lot better or worse than all the keepers currently with the other top teams? If they are better than Van der Saar, Cech, Gomes, Given, Reina, Howard, why is it none of these other clubs are being linked with them? If they are worse why would we want them? When you look at our 4 (YES FOUR) keepers you can hardly choose between them that is not because they are all crap! 2 of them play international football for Poland and compete with Koczack, Boruc and Dudek for a place. Last year the whole country was clamouring for the Spaniard to be pushed in front of James, Green, Kirkland, Robinson, Carson, Foster and HART. The other keeper has been playing for Italy U21. I would like everyone to compare our “team” of custodians with our rivals i bet half of you could not even name their 2nd choice keepers (without looking it up) let alone their 3rd and 4th choice keepers.
The fact is we are at an interesting stage with our keepers and Wenger believes the competition between them will see one or more of them rise to the challenge, sure there are a few keepers that are better than ours, but like Fabregas they are not available, so why should we expect their clubs to sell and yet we all expect Barcelona to do one when they want our captain. If we all think Man U, Chelsea & Spurs have better keepers than us why doesnt anyone ever mention us going for them? Why should Akinfeev, Stekelenberg, Hart, Given and Lloris be anymore available than those 3?
I think it is time to now drop the clamour for a new keeper, the Manager has publicly come out and backed them, there has been no proof that he has looked anywhere else outside these 4 so he must be jusdged once again at the end of the season. He is the Manager, he has one more year on his contract, so he must know what is expected of him. Have you all ever considered that he may not be expected to win any any trophies? Sure we all expect it, but does the Manager’s employer’s demand that of him? Perhaps they want their Manager to ensure the club competes at the highest level consistently, continues to develop young promising talent, continues to increase the profits and reduce the current deficit and protect the shareholders financial investment. You cannot argue that Wenger is one of the best if not the best at doing all that, the financial difference of actually putting a trophy in a display cabinet and calling it yours for a few months, compared to what we achieve year in, year out is a very fine line and not the be all and end all.
Artur Boruc 1.7m from celtic to Fiorentina.!!
For fuks sakes you lot keeping going on about how bad he is and how crap is tell me 5 fuking mistakes he has done this season?
I am sick and tired of the bashing the guy gets from numpties on here who stay in thier rooms playing football manager all day and having an orgasm over youth footballers.
Almunia is a great guy, good pro, good goalkeeper he doesnt deserve the stick he gets.
we need to sort out our defence and defence structure thats the only critiscim i have got against arsene wenger we are too gunho and too open.
No goalkeeper in the world will make us better until we learn how to defend properly.
EDdwin van der saar was a flop at juventus and made some huge blkunders with fulham but when hes at Man utd and you got vidic and rio must be so much easier.
Mark schwarzer was one of the worst goalies i thought id seen at boro some of his blunders were unreal even in the world cup he made some huge mistakes. I have to give him credit though at fulham hes has turned it around at 38,29 was very good last year.
Thomas sorensen gosh he was awful at sunderland and villa let in too many easy goals but like schwazrer hes improved with age and done well with stoke.
Almunia hasnt really done anything bad and i can remeber alot of basic mistakes apart from the Man utd carling cup goal. He just needs to go to the enxt level hes 33 hes got plenty of time
PLEASE TELL ME WE WONT GET RELEGATED . IM STARTING TO GET GET VERY CONCERNED NOW.
I think you are Manuel Akmunia in disguise. If that is you Manuel. You are SHIT!!!
Almunia’s not a bad goalkeeper when he’s confident. Unfortunately, I think he’s in the Senderos mould. One mistake and his confidence is shattered for a long while.
Almunia is a good keeper. So is Fabianski. I’d like to see Szczesny as our #1 too because he seems to have bags of talent, but then if he made one mistake or two this season, the brainless morons like SWP, MIlo, et al would be on here defaming the poor kid and calling him shit.
Grow up you lot. Learn to spell. Learn what grammar is. And go support the chavs or sp*rs because Arsenal doesn’t need “fans” like you.
Im afraid I have to side with John here. Arsene knows best. Trust me after reading this I’m as ticked off as the next guy but I think to a time where we conceded too many goals and the problem was the midfield even Wenger came out and said the goal were conceded in midfield and we all expected a cdm but Wenger signed NO ONE and trusted in Song who was pretty solid but had a poor previous season.
What I think Almunia lacks is confidene otherwise he could just do the job and it’s blokes like you guys who contribute to it.
Get behind the lads for god sakes and get behind arsenal.
We need some more positivity i am fed up with the doom and gloom. I am confident arsenal can win a trophy i just hope they learn from thier mistakes and defend better as a team
Im afraid almunia is the worst number 1 goalie in the prem, his best game was against barca first half and what happened he ran out and got lobbed,these are the mistakes l remember off the top of my head from last season against birmingham fumbled into his net, against tottenham let the ball go in, against liverpool kicked to one of them and was left one on one but was lucky he missed, hes made too many mistakes we have given him years and he still makes mistakes the defence dont trust him cant command his penalty area at all, his catching of the ball is rubbish from corners and free kicks and under pressure always seems to either not get there at all or punch it instead of punching it why not catch it. Always seems to let us down in the big games and his distribution to other players is poor some matches he hits the ball off the pitch and gives it to the other team more than to our players also l remember him trying to kick the ball to arshavin all game when he was the CF how was arshavin meant to get the ball against 6’2 centre backs. l think hes the worst player in the squad l would sell Almunia loan out fabianski get a goalie like sorensen and make Tech9 number 2 if we aint buyin another goalie make tech9 number one. John why dont you try and name 5 worse goalies in the prem or 5 times when almunia put in a great game and earned us three points in the league or maybe lets take a vote of whos the worst goalie in our squad, geez at least fabianski got a chance of improving Almunia has no chance of improving. Almunia is consistent, consistently shite since the first game to his last game oh yea l can think of one goalie worse hilario from chelsea but thats about it.
JOHN I HAVE ALREADY PLACED A BET WITH MY SPURS FAN THAT WE WILL WIN A TROPHY THIS YEAR
AND YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT LETS GET BEHIND THE LAD
Most of you focus on our keepers cons rather then pro’s. Almunia has mostly been consistent for us over seasons. Fabianski just has to cut out the silly errors and toughen up a bit many forget he was considered the polish Buffon. Anyway we shouldn’t be that worried i mean look at Chelsea Cech is shaky and is seemingly being injured more than Robben, Hilario Turnbull really are poor il have our quartet over theirs anyday.
I expected this might happen
but this can turn out to be a blessing in disguise
almunia and fabianski have their off days we all know that and Mannone got a chance last year maybe Tech9 can get his chance this time around and he might be able to hold on too the no.1 position
and solve our goalkeeping crisis for the next decade
Remember how just a couple of months ago many people here were declaring that Rob Green was the answer, football is a fickle business. I agree that Almunia won’t be remembered as a Pat Jennings or Davis Seaman in Arsenal history but I never question he does his best. Therefore it’s Wenger decision that should be questioned not for fans to attack the player. When Almunia was injured and Fabianski came in I wished Almunia back. As for Wenger I don’t agree with his decision here and now but I don’t watch these guys train everyday and you’ll have to be a brave man/idiot to claim to a superior football brain than him. I would love to see Szczesny given a go but maybe Wenger doesn’t want to give him the jersey to easy or shatter a young mans confidence if he has a few bad games, some of the comments here show not all gooners would be too forgiving. As the banner says “In Arsene we trust” , well I do for one
John:
First goal away at City, Almunia had a lifetime to collect the ball and in the end he missed it, it went off the post and off his head and in
Second Goal: Away to Scousers, Almunia could have EASILY caught the ball but instead he hits it away poorly straight to Kuyt who scores.
Third Goal: Home to United, Almunia is chipped by Nani who is ON THE BYLINE. Pathetic, no excuse for that, even looks like Almunia might have helped it in.
Fourth Goal: Chelsea away, Drogba’s second was right over his head, a better keeper would have at least got a hand to it, instead of ducking away.
Fifth Goal: Brum away, fucking shameful.
Sixth Goal: Spurs away, Rose’s goal was on a straight line, no swerve, and was a completely savable ball. Instead he falls backwards and it sails just barely over him.
Seventh Goal: Spurs away, Almunia falls down and Bale beats him at his near post, pathetic.
Almunia playing well last week at the Emirates cup was the worst thing that could have happened really.
He made plenty of mistakes last season. It’s generally his decision making which is poor and his consistancy.
* He played the half of the season in the first game against Barca and then 5 minutes into the second half comes rushing off his line without a care in the world….
*His over acrobatic punch against Spurs which lead to the Rose finish because he couldn’t reposition properly…..
* His performance in the first Man City game which lead to his first “cold” of the season etc etc etc
He doesn’t inspire confidence among this defence and this causes issues and considering we are weaker there this season, it doesn’t bode well one week before the start of the season.
Almunia should be our no.2 keeper, he was fantastic as Lehman’s understudy and is a better option than any of the other 3. We would have a better no.2 keeper than most of our rivals, and i believe that is what is in Wenger’s thinking. Almunia is better than Hilario, Kuczack and Cudicini, off the top of my head i cannot even name the understudies at any of the other clubs, aside of Man City. Our problem should be who of the other 3 will be No.1? Fabianski, Mannone & Sczcesney none of these 3 have ever really been given the opportunity of a run in the first team. Fabianski has played the most a whopping 12 league matches and another 20 matches spread across 3 cup competitions over 3 seasons. Mannone has played about 6 and Sczesney 1 or 2. Personally i would loan out Mannone till the end of December and Fabianski the job in the league. I would give Almunia the Champions League and the spot on the bench and play Sczesney in the Carling Cup. When the window opens again in January i would review where we are at. Assuming we are still in the cups and competing at the top, the only decisions that would need to be made is who will get the FA Cup job and are the other 3 keepers getting enough match time? Obviously if we have seen no improvement in Fabianski the window will be open most keepers will be further down the line in terms of contract length and some will be available as their league and cup hopes could well be over.
How can a fan tolerate this kind of shit and saaad decision.
Its too much. its too much……..
Arsenal again just for business.
At least one GK. How one great manager can take this kind of decision.
He is doing only business again and again………
So sad……………………
i think Fabianski could be good if he had a run of games definitely and he hasn’t really had that but they both seem to crack a little when the pressure is on and we need to win a game (Spurs, Wigan etc)
BOB WILSON ISNT INTERESTED IN COMING OUT OF RETIREMENT. PEPE REINA IS A REPORTED 25MIL TARGET . WAS HE SEEN WITH AN ARSENAL SHIRT BEING FORCED OVER HIS HEAD?
Almunia playing well last week at the Emirates cup was the worst thing that could have happened really.
WTF why don’t u give him credit for having a good game he made some world class saves came and caught slot of crosses he was brilliant he’s still got time to improve. You are a typical almunia basher you don’t recognise when he has a good game and just waiting and wanting him to do a mistake it’s quite sad really.
if you think any Arsenal fans want our goalies to make a mistake your mad, why would anyone want that at all, what just to prove a point that hes rubbish and prove you wrong, to be honest if he has a great season and we win the league fair play to him, l would thank god alot of ppl was wrong including myself but this year will tell, l think Wenger wants to give fabianski a good run of games and see what happens, Wenger might buy someone in jan if all goes wrong.
I’m gonna put a slightly different spin on this,although I don’t think our goalies are great I would much rather see us buy a top centre back and decide to actually defend better as a team and a unit because even though the attacking over the last couple of years has been great,the defending has been absolutely shocking,sometimes non existant. I can understand that Wenger wants us to entertain by trying to take teams apart from the off but whenever we lose the ball in the opposition half we rarely have more than 3 players back trying to stop the counter attack,we are far too open. I can’t see how spending 20million on a world class goalie will make any difference myself.
WELL SAID SUPER BOB . A FEW CLANGERS BY A KEEPER ISNT GOING TO COST A CHAMPIONSHIP .DEFENDING AS A TEAM WITH QUALITY DEFENDERS IS A MUST FOR ANY TEAM. WETHER IT BE A BUNCH OF CLOGGERS OR ARTISTS LIKE BARCA DEFENDING AS A TEAM AGAINST ARSENAL AT THE EMIRATES . WE HAVE DECENT DEFENDERS BUT COULD DO WITH ONE OUTSTANDIND CB WITH A COMMANDING PERSONALITY LIKE ADAMS , A TRUE LEADER OF MEN. KEEPERS ARE IMPORTANT BUT DEFENDING AS A TEAM MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.
last year most of the time Almunia was left to defend on his own.Clichy and Sagna have a poor season overalll.I blame more our fullback form rather than our GK .
At time their defending was amateur at best.True the lazy russian in front Clichy wasnt t helping in front of him but Gael have to raise his level if not Gibbs will take his place.Same with Sagna who maybe a little better at defending but attacking wise Eboue is ten time the player.
After a great start of the season were everyone was defending and attacking as one some of our player decide they are not really gone to do both job.We need our player to work harder on both side of the play.Ok maybe Almunia is not WC but he is a decent GK.
Who could have better but lot of worst.too.Some far worst GK in the premiership out there but true by the standard he raise 2 season ago last year was not great but so was some of our player like Arshavin but i don’t see anyone saying we need to sell him and he is a clown.
thec 9 could be the answer .If he really that good wenger have to give him the N1 place or loan him.We cannot afford to leave him of the bench like fanbiaski who was ratted the same but play too few match and when call he was lost because he doesnt play enough
Arshavin has great talent but last year didnt work hard enough for us, he had too many games where he was a dead weight maybe he will come good this year, but i have been saying that for too long for almunia
blame the formation not the fullbacks
wingers in 4-3-3 play in the opposition box and fullbacks have to defend the whole wings and then support attack
Super Bob and Stoke ( I hate Stoke since Shawcross) Gunner – agreed with your points but Schmeical and Seaman added a further 9-10 points as a result of their world class saves.
Yes defending as a team is very important, as Barca gave us a big lesson in closing down as a unit they were amazing against us and showed how we should be, l agree we do get countered by good teams like chelsea, man u and barca but we are one of the worst teams at letting in goals from set plays and the goalie plays a massive part in that.
JASON HAVE YOU GOT SHARES IN FABIANSKI ?
Fabianski will make it
I have a feeling I know he’s been terrible for the last two season but if you follow our neighbors example then gomes was horrible last season but he came through and so will our Flapanski
By the end of the season this guy will have turned into a brilliant keeper
IF OUR DEFENING AS A UNIT IMPROVES THE CONFIDENCE WILL SPREAD TO THE KEEPER , WHO EVER IT IS . WE DEFINITELY ARE NOT FAR OFF BEING A COMPLETE TEAM DESPITE ALL THE DOOM AND GLOOM MONGERS WHO CONTAMINATE THIS SITE !
I dont think everyone here is doom and gloom, most people think that with a top quality goalie and another new quality centre back or two we would have a excellent chance of winning the league and l agree with that
OVERMARS ARE YOU STILL KEEPING YOURSELF FIT ? WE COULD DO WITH A DECENT OUT AND OUT WINGER .
I CAN GUARANTEE YOU THAT WE WILL SIGN A GOOD CB BY THE END OF THE SEASON BUT MAYBE NOT A GOALIE
I DONT BELIEVE WE WILL SIGN REINA FOR 25mil heck I doubt we will sign schwarzer
but I do believe if wenger’s right and fabianski does step up and starts playing like he used for warsaw then there’s not a team in europe that can stop us
jason – I wish I had your cofidence in Flappy; he has made critical mistakes probably in each of his 8 previous consecutive matches starting with the Chelsea semi.
So why am I in moderation??????????????
Very sad news that Wenger won’t bring in a quality keeper, Almunia and Fabianski simply isn’t good enough and will make us suffer when facing the better teams. Even though the rumours about Reina probably isn’t true, i would love to see Reina at Arsenal, he is a world class keeper who would be a tremendous boost for the whole team. I have little hope of seeing Arsenal win any titles at all this season again..
WHAT WAS I SAYING ABOUT DOOM AND GLOOM MONGERS ?
MAN UTD,CHELSEA,BARCELONA amongst others all play the same formation as us,the major difference is that rather than let everyone go forward and have no cover they compensate,Barcelona close down instantly,the attackers work their arses off,man utd tend to play 2 central midfielders that sit adding cover to their defence,same with chelsea,if you want to allow both your full backs ie clichy and sagna to bomb forward then why the hell doesn’t say Diaby use his head and sit back a bit alongside song while they do it?! surely if we’re that good at attacking then we don’t need more than Van Persie,Fabregas,Arshavin,Walcott and the 2 fbs to score?
Set piece wise I think ok the goalie can be better but either way none of our players attack a ball apart from Vermaelen,if the rest ain’t smart enough to even try and attack the ball then what hope does a world class goalie have of sorting them all out on his own?
Centre back should be a priority because Djourous not bad but he can be slack,Koscielny well I just don’t know about him yet,I’m not exactly highly impressed yet,we need a Jagielka type in there,someone who loves to defend,break the bank for him Wenger
” Most of you focus on our keepers cons rather then pro’s. Almunia has mostly been consistent for us over seasons. Fabianski just has to cut out the silly errors and toughen up a bit many forget he was considered the polish Buffon. Anyway we shouldn’t be that worried i mean look at Chelsea Cech is shaky and is seemingly being injured more than Robben, Hilario Turnbull really are poor il have our quartet over theirs anyday.”
r U FUKKIN STUPID? its cunts like u that piss me off, u no nothing about football, KNOB, cech had a fuking quality season last year, 1o times better than any of our pieces of shit. And our quartet is better than theirs??? Even when you only named their trio???? DUMB FUK
the only dumb fuck is people who need to swear to try to make a point.And cech is not as good since the bad head injury.He make lot of error
Almunia is a decent keeper, but he isn’t good enough for Arsenal which is the bottom line.
SWEARING DOESNT MAKE YOU SOUND INTELLIGENT
Ok so personally i think Fab could be a great kepper but needs work (maybe a lot of work but still).
Almunia is a good keeper and i wanted him to play for England and still would have him as back up for Hart. But he does make mistakes like every keeper, unfortunately for Al our defence made him look worse and the same for Fab and Mannone. Our keepers make mistakes yes but so do the likes of Cech, Van der Sar, Gomes etc but their defences cover for them especially at set play.