Is Szczcesny really good enough for Arsenal ?

[Alpha]

Age doesn't really matter when when a player has talent and is ready to step up . Having seen Wojciech the whole of last year , I have my reservation to whether he is ready for Arsenal . He has solved many problems in goalkeeping department in particular set-pieces and corner . But he is still prone to costly mistakes for which the likes of Almunia would be hanged . The boy has bags of talent and is very confident in goal but I'm not really sure he should be no 1 . He has become complacent due to the lack of rivalry . Fabianski and Mannone being unable to provide a good competition in goal , Arsenal should have searched elsewhere . A very good veteran goal keeper would be ideal from whom he could learn some tricks and improve his game . But a young and good keeper would wake him up and he wouldn't take that spot for granted . My choice would be Kasper Scmeichel . He is a top keeper and even at City he was better than Joe Hart when he was their no 1 . I believe Hart took the no 1 jersey from him simply because he is english .

[Munchies]

Well he did show signs of being a good keeper during the season, but as you said, he's coasted alot since then due to having shit back ups on the side who never could put pressure on him as they were both shit. Funny thing is that all of our keepers bar Szcenzy are available on free transfers to other clubs, ie Mannone/Almunia/Fabianski. So bascially what Wenger was doing in the past 7-8 years has been more or less a waste of time in terms of the goalkeeping department, he should have brought in an experienced keeper like VDS or in the Lehmann mould, rather than fucking toying about with crap inexperienced ones. The only reason why Sczency was promoted was because everyone else was shit, not that he was much better ! .

But I think we need a good back up keeper that has premiership experience, My choice was Jussi Jaskalainan but he has gone to West Ham.

[Xhaka Can’t]

He is a step up from his immediate predecessors, but towards the end of the season his form dropped off noticeably. And he sure as hell had a stinker for Poland. I am worried that he has bought in to his own hype and this has adversely affected his development. He is good, but he has a long way to go before becoming the finished article and being the quality goalkeeper we can rely upon.

[fakeyank]

We need to sign Da Gay

[Cripps_orig]

Pretty much what ive been saying the whole of last season

Good to see other posters coming up to my level of thinking finally.

Sir Ches needs competition. Almunia and Fabianski are arguably 2 of the worst keepers around and were never going to take Chesneys place no matter how shit he played and he knew that and got complacent.

He is nowhere near being the best keeper in the country as some on here claim him to be but ive seen enough to keep him and let him develop but he needs competition. Preferably someone who is older who can also help Chesney

[Marc Overmars]

Nothing wrong with him being confident in himself but sometimes I feel he needs to be reigned in a little. I'm glad he quit Twitter because some of the shit he came out with on there was even worse than Woolsheer.

Has bags of ability and sometimes it's easy to forget he's only 22, it's still very young for a keeper considering they generally don't hit their peak form until late 20's at least.

Some competition should do him good.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I agree that competition is needed for him, the difficulty here lies with who is likely to want to provide that competition. If you are an established keeper, you're going to want the No. 1 slot. If you're up and coming (and probably older than Ches), when are you going to get your chance to take over? Chesney is 22, so taking over from him is unlikely IF he successfully maintains his development which I hope he will.

[Syn]

Not perfect but pretty fucking good. I'm very happy with him being the first choice and I'm sure he'll continue to be for a long time. I think we'll try to go for a capable no.2 if Fabianski goes and that'll do. I actually think Szczesny is a 'safe' choice. You might think he's erratic like crazy Jens was but, for my money, he makes less errors than any other goalkeeper in the league. But on the other side, he makes less outstanding saves than Joe Hart. So he's usually a 8/10 GK but doesn't tend to hit the 9's and 10's like Hart might. But overall I think he's the least of our worries right now. The priority should be on improving the midfield and our defensive record will automatically improve if we can win the ball better and keep the ball better.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I agree with what Syn has said. Chesney was seeing a lot more action than he should have done towards the end of the season. This was down to the MF being completely overrun by pretty much every team we faced. It was embarrassing.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

To be fair to the guy......last season was his first full season between the sticks and considering his age I do not think he did that badly at all, as much as many beg to differ we are still one of the top clubs in the land and the pressure is immense. I thought he handled this well even though there was a bit of a slump, shit I don't think that didn't happen to any one in the team.

Ach is right he is not the best in the land but the potential to be so is there.......the people saying he needs competition are also right because he took over from a group that showed they didn't have what it took and did not offer much of a challenge to the position once it became clear that the #1 shirt was his. He needs to be pushed and he needs to push himself. I am happy to have him as first choice and expect even better things from him next term.