Have to agree with MO on this one, I don't want to take the risk with losing this one. Could be the one that got away, and I like the fact he is vocal and expressive. He is a good young keeper and again I allude to common consesus on here that with his emergence we've got more critical areas to firm up as a priority.
Chesney is different though as there is no real viable alternative. He may improve, he may not at the moment though he is pretty average imo. I think we should give him the chance to improve because as I've said we won't sign anyone better because we can't.Originally Posted by budesonide
He started quite well with a run of tight play at the back and looking like the best we've got but then things went a bit awry, dunno whether it was him looking shakier due to a drop in the level of the rest of the defence or vice-versa, I suspect it's half an half. Fabianski was looking good before his injury so as long as we invest in other positions around the GK (decent replacement for Clichy, re-inforce the midfield and maybe a new CB) I'm happy with him continuing as 1st choice (or dropping to 2nd if Fabianski gets a chance and takes it).
I've read the discussion and I already know what will happen if we try to wing another season with rookies in goal. So do you I suspect. Is Chesney really that good? No, not at the moment. Could he be good? Time will tell along with the experience time brings. As I've already said, if the full range of our ambition is to secure a CL spot then we might scrape by on talent alone minus the experience in the key areas of the team. If we want more than that we'll need the players to achieve it. Unless the suggestion is the lot we have right now are capable. Plainly they aren't. I'm assuming nobody missed the last 10 weeks of our season. Or the season before that, or the one before that and so on.
People said that about a striker last year, before it became painfully obvious we needed a striker. It took a solid three months of being berated in the "Striker needed", thread before it eventually became common knowledge we were lacking in that department. Lack of an experienced keeper (a decent keep of course) will hurt us next season just as it has all of the seasons before.
Don't get me wrong, if we had the money to bring in a top quality keeper, who is much better than what we have then fine. But we have the defence, defensive and offensive mid as well as striker problems to address which I personally think are more of a priority .....where the bulk of likely limited funds should be spent
...but if we are gonna do a City splurge, then hell yeah ..go for it, knock yourself Wenger go buy a £15M+ keeper
I don't believe you need to have a household name as a keeper, someone adequate is good enough IMO. Almunia lost the plot, so it was never going to take a lot to be an improvement on him. As I said above, I'd favour experience every single time but in this case I believe Chesney is made of the right stuff and will be a very good keeper for us. I think our keeping situation is exacerbated because of how poor Almunia became, if you take him out of the equation, you will see that Fabianski was almost flawless during his 2 month run in the side and Chesney was generally consistent too.
Of course you can't ignore there garbage defending our keepers have to contend with in front of them as well.
We have issues in the side but I'm reasonably confident when I say the position of goal keeper has moved way down the 'to do' list.
Last edited by Marc Overmars; 24-05-2011 at 07:34 PM.
But you see, next season, it shall so happen that his every cock-up will be severely punished by the opposition to the derailment of our objectives. Then come close season next year will be talking about why we had to rely on an untested kid in such an important area of the ptch.
The issue then is, why has wenger allowed this to become the state of the squad? In my opinion, the goalie position is not even an area where you actively try and develop a player from scratch (for a top club anyway).
Last edited by budesonide; 24-05-2011 at 07:19 PM.
Point taken but with a good defence in front of him and a team that puts in a shift when without the ball, I think he is good enough and it has been done before ...actively grooming a young keeper
On the current state of the squad and Wenger ...honest answer is I don't know why Wenger let it get to this, only he knows the full truth
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote