Arsenal Can Learn From Turin When Replacing Petr Cech

Arsenal Can Learn From Turin When Replacing Petr Cech
10:02, 22 Nov 2017

As Petr Cech sprung brilliantly to his right to deny Harry Kane in the North London Derby last weekend, replacing him would have been a distant thought to many associated with Arsenal. Only 24 hours later and Juventus would take to the field with Wojciech Szczesny between the posts instead of their iconic Gianluigi Buffon and whilst they were surprisingly beaten, the move showed the difference between the clubs when in comes to forward thinking. Whether or not one is of the opinion that Cech is still at his best or not, perhaps the Gunners should also be making plans for life after Petr.

The fact that Juventus identified ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Szczesny as a replacement for Buffon before Arsenal managed to see that he should be their future number, one is an issue that is now history. The Gunners were certainly right to loan him to Roma as it was there under Luciano Spalletti an especially goalkeeping coach Marco Savorani, that he improved drastically. This was not the mistake (although perhaps Arsenal can look again at their own goalkeeping coaches) the error was that they did not bring him back after stint at Roma.

Instead Maximiliano Allegri brought him to Turin and he has spent this season slowly playing more and more games in the league as Buffon slowly takes a back seat. ‘Gigi’ is still playing all of the Champions League games and a majority of Serie A fixtures but the Pole is now seeing more game time. Wojciech is now gone for Arsenal for better or for worse but the lesson from Juventus is that they are planning for life without ‘Gigi’ and perhaps Arsenal should be planning for life without Petr.

Cech is not without his critics this season, as games at Leicester, Everton and Liverpool have been highlighted as certainly not is finest hours. This rhetoric was the same last season as especially against Chelsea in that campaign there were calls to replace him. Cech is no doubt in some sort of decline but this needs to be taken in context, Buffon is also being a slight decline, but he is still one of the best in the world. Petr is not playing to his standards but even last season on arguably his worst at Arsenal, he was still statistically mixing it with the top five goalkeepers in the league.

Arsenal are therefore in a perfect situation where if they follow the ‘Old Lady’s advice they can plan for the future whilst having a solid goalkeeper in the meantime. Many of a Colombian disposition may argue that the Gunners are already doing this as David Ospina has been featuring in the Europa League and will also no doubt be the custodian for Arsenal’s FA Cup run. Whilst it is a plausible stance to say that this is future planning it seems flawed. After all, whilst Ospina is a capable keeper he has made errors at Arsenal, and has had this chance before in last season’s Champions League where it went drastically wrong. If the Colombian was a youngster, then perhaps the potential would outweigh the naivety, but he is not he is 29-years of age and perhaps not a long-term replacement and simply more of a reserve.

Perhaps with the arrival of new scout Sven Mislintat, fresh off the plane from Borussia Dortmund, the man nicknamed ‘Diamond Eye’ can unearth a gem. Many names have been linked already with the extremely long term seemingly covered already. Emiliano Martinez is a talented youngster already at the club whilst Crotone’s 18-year old Aniello Viscovo is also reportedly on the radar. For the more immediate future names like Standard Liege’s, Guillaume Hubert, Toulouse’s young French keeper Alban Lafont and RB Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi also being seen as the major three possibilities. There have also been lesser links to Genoa’s superb Mattia Perin and Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga although these seem much less likely.

Whatever the decision Arsenal come to they can look over to Turin and see how a transition is talking place naturally. Perhaps with ore forward thinking they may have had, what is now one of the most rated keepers in Serie A, ready to replace their Czech custodian. Perhaps the timing wasn’t right and perhaps Cech intends to carry on just that little bit longer, but the lesson should still be learned. Arsenal will soon need to replace a huge talent and huge character and for once if they learn a lesson from mistakes, then they could have a bright new future soon between the posts at the Emirates.

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