In a sentence to give prolonged headaches over spelling, Wojciech Szczesny has been described as a ‘Portiere-trequartista’ by Luciano Spalletti.
The AS Roma coach believes their Arsenal loan player is more than just a goalkeeper, he’s a playmaker too. Since Szczesny moved to Roma on loan from Arsenal there have been distinct peaks and troughs, and at the moment he looks to be firmly in peak mode.
Whenever Szczesny is playing particularly well there are obviously questions about Roma perhaps keeping him for longer, but Gazzetta dello Sport believe he’s set to be Arsene Wenger’s number one next season.
Whoah, put the brakes on.
Cech signed for Arsenal in 2015 on what was reported as a four year contract, which would take him to 2019. Arsenal’s statement at the time didn’t give the exact term but said: ‘Petr Cech has agreed to join Arsenal from Chelsea on a long-term contract for an undisclosed fee.’
That’s clearly not two years, unless Gazzetta know something we don’t.
David Ospina’s contract also ends in June 2019, so Arsenal are pretty well covered as it stands, there’s no need to take Szczesny back unless the Colombian leaves.
Gazzetta are convinced Szczesny won’t be staying at Roma as it stands, and put his high salary down as one of the reasons for that, so Arsenal will have an issue in the summer. The Polish goalkeeper’s own contract ends in June 2018, so another period of loan without an extension would be bad business for Arsenal, who could then lose the player for nothing.
Arsenal are unlikely to offer an extension on the same terms Szczesny currently gets and may prefer to sell this time. The best chance of Szczesny returning is Ospina leaving, but even then he’d have to battle Cech for a starting place.
Szczesny will be 27 years of age in the summer, perhaps it’s time to cut the Arsenal umbilical cord.
