So. Is Arsène Wenger going to bring Peter Cech from Chelsea to Arsenal? When asked that question yesterday, Wenger replied:
“I don’t deal with the ‘if’… We have world-class goalkeepers, we’ve got three. That’s a very tricky question because we are not interested in anybody at the moment.”
But they should be.
Wojciech Szczesny, fined for smoking in the showers after Arsenal’s defeat away to Southampton, is possessed with the demeanor of an office worker waiting for the beeping green man to signal that it’s safe to cross a road; David ‘the accountant’ Ospina, last seen failing to prevent Swansea City’s Bafetimbi Gomis scoring with a pretty weak header, is short and keen… and short; and callow Emiliano Martínez is learning his role.
When asked why he had spent the then huge £270,000 fee on Peter Shilton in 1977, Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough replied, “a team with an OK goalkeeper is always looking over its shoulder. I’d have paid almost any price.”
Arsenal’s three ‘keepers are OK.
But this is Wenger not Clough. When Arsenal’s defence was hit by injuries earlier in the season, Wenger offered:
“It is difficult to say how long [Mathieu] Debuchy will be absent. A dislocated shoulder needs a diagnosis.
“I was in the market anyway, but what is for sure is that without Debuchy and [Kieran] Gibbs — both of whom can play as central defenders — this is a position where we are short.”
Will a man who thinks the skittish Gibbs can operate as a Premier League centre-back spend big on a top goalkeeper? Arsenal fans shouldn’t expect too much…
(Photo: Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Peter Shilton celebrates with the trophy after Forest had beaten Hamburg to win the 1980 European Cup at the Bernabau stadium on May 28, 1980 in Madrid, Spain.)