Szczesny’s ascent begs question of why Arsenal let him go for just £10m
Hpolish goalkeeper has rebuilt his career spectacularly in Italy after falling out of favour with Wenger four years ago
Wojciech Szczesny had just kept a certain Alisson Becker out of the Roma team for an entire season when Dick Law, Arsenal’s former transfer chief, delivered the news he had not wanted to hear.
Despite spending two years on loan at Roma, Szczesny had bought a house in the Totteridge area of Barnet and had not given up on resuming his career at the Emirates.
But Law told him that he would be third choice behind Petr Cech and David Ospina under manager Arsene Wenger, prompting the Pole to seek a permanent move away from Arsenal. His performances in Italy earned him a transfer to Juventus.
That was four years ago and Szczesny will return to England tonight with the Poland squad as the man who has kept both Alisson and Gianluigi Buffon on the sidelines, and stopped Juventus spending big on Gianluigi Donnarumma. He has also started Poland’s past two games, against Hungary and Andorra, ahead of Lukasz Fabianski, his former Arsenal club-mate.
It was only a year after Juventus signed Szczesny for £10million that Liverpool made Alisson, his old Roma understudy, the world’s most expensive goalkeeper by signing him for £66.8million, before Chelsea broke that record four weeks later by spending £72million on Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Arsenal, it could be claimed, had not judged the market well. It was in the summer of 2018 that Szczesny was officially given the task of succeeding arguably the best goalkeeper of all-time in Turin, as Buffon joined Paris St-germain, and he has not looked back.
“In Roma, I put on the bench the best goalkeeper in the world; in Juventus, the best in history,” Szczesny said in 2019. “It turns out that I am the best in the world and in history!”
He was clearly joking, but has certainly developed into one of the world’s best, reflected by the fact that the most recent contract he signed with Juventus put him second only to David de Gea for wages in his position.
The disappointing Champions League performances of Juventus have prevented Szczesny receiving credit outside Italy, but those within the game are aware of his talent. Frank Lampard, the former Chelsea head coach, showed an interest in trying to bring Szczesny back to England last summer, before signing Edouard Mendy, but, having learnt the language and settled into the lifestyle, the 30-year-old could not be happier in Italy. In his second season at Roma, Szczesny kept the most clean sheets in Serie A, as Alisson watched from the bench, and, after taking over from Buffon, he earned a nomination for the Yashin Trophy – the prize to recognise the world’s best goalkeeper over a season.
Szczesny won his third Serie A title with Juventus last season and was named the best goalkeeper in Italy. But perhaps the greatest acknowledgement of his performances was that Buffon, on returning to the club, turned down his offer to take back his old No1 shirt and instead insisted on wearing 77 in recognition of the fact he was no longer first choice.
Just how and why Arsenal let one of the world’s best goalkeepers slip through their fingers for a relative pittance remains a sore point among some supporters, even allowing for some poor moments of judgment on and off the pitch, and a confidence in his own ability that could border on arrogance. Having kept 16 clean sheets, Szczesny finished the 201314 season as the joint-holder of the Premier League’s Golden Glove award with Cech, who was still at Chelsea, and had delighted Arsenal fans by posting a video of himself playing We won the League at White Hart Lane on the piano the day after a north London derby victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
But problems started in the following campaign, as Szczesny conceded a penalty and was sent off in a Champions League game against Galatasaray, and was caught smoking in the changing-room showers after making mistakes for both of the goals in a defeat by Southampton. Szczesny was fined £20,000, and lost his Premier League place to Ospina following the smoking incident, but it was not just a crafty cigarette and a couple of mistakes that had annoyed Wenger. Not satisfied with the training methods of Gerry Peyton, Wenger’s trusted goalkeeping coach, Szczesny would arrive at the training ground at 7am for a session with one of the club’s other coaches – something the Frenchman disapproved of. He may not have been the “best in history”, but there have not been many better than Szczesny since Wenger decided that he was not even Arsenal’s secondbest goalkeeper.