Arsenal leading the chase to move for £15 million Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic in the summer window
Arsenal are in an increasingly strong position to sign Asmir Begovic this summer, provided they meet Stoke City’s valuation for their goalkeeper of around £15million.

An inquiry was made for Begovic during the January transfer window and it is understood that there has been further contact from Arsenal in recent weeks, although no firm offer has been made.
Arsenal’s negotiating position is likely to be directly strengthened by Manchester United’s lessening need to sign a new first choice goalkeeper following the improvement in David de Gea’s form.
With Anders Lindegaard expected to leave, United still want to add some experienced competition for De Gea but Begovic would not be willing to join any club as number two.
Chelsea have also been regarded as potential buyers but they already have two world-class goalkeepers in Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois, who is on loan at Atlético Madrid.
It leaves Arsenal as a very viable option, although Stoke do have high expectations about Begovic’s worth. At 25, he is approaching his peak years as a goalkeeper and his contract does not expire until 2016.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/9983174/Arsenal-leading-the-chase-to-move-for-15-million-Stoke-City-goalkeeper-Asmir-Begovic-in-the-summer-window.html

We should be fine with goalies. Even guys like Willy at Malaga or Valdes at Barcelona can come in and do a competent job. I believe we should toss one of our Poles, and bring one of these other cats.

I don't think that's the best way we can spend £15m, but it might make sense from a football point of view if we can get £10m for Szczesny.

I think it'd be a shame to lose the guy though and I'm just not sure it'd get us that much. Begovic is behind one of the deepest, ugliest defensive lineups in the PL.

Question, Burnsy is what's our problem
we are top 3 in goals scored and conceded. why are we in 5th? what are we doing wrong? what's our priority?

Good question, I've been thinking about it lately. This would be my top four:

No complete strikers - hence poor conversion rate meaning lots of chances need to be created (part of the reason we seem to "start slow").

Lots of chances need to be created to get a lead. Whole team working harder and moving more, lack of emphasis on defending for longer periods. Therefore we tend to concede in matches when we don't take the lead early - most of them.

Defensive errors, especially by centre backs. Ours - particularly Vermaelen - have been mistake prone in pressure matches. Enough said.

Deficit of strength and ball-winning ability in what would otherwise be our best midfield. Has been better since Ramsey came into his own a bit.

All of the above are why we sometimes seem like a team optimised for hammering crappy defences. When we face disorganised sides, we score early and every aspect of the game then improves for us.

Top level strikers are definitely the big difference between us and the incumbent champions, but any idiot could tell you that.

That isn't a Guardian article but thats their version of the BBC rumor mill

Find it really hard to believe Stoke are going to sell on Begovic for 4m when that's nearly as much as they paid for him. 15m is excessive no doubt but if 8-10m meant we had 2 keepers fighting for a spot then it's worth it. Chez has needed a kick up the arse for a long time.

Buy him and our goalie is settled for the next decade.

But it would also mean 15m less to spend on other positions.

£15m would be a ludicrous fee for Begovic.

true. always half what you see in the papers. they're prone to
1) hyperbole and
2) including contract terms in the transfer fee and then just presenting that as the transfer figure to grab our attention

I would like us to pick up either Rene Adler or Marc-Andre ter Stegen. Germany's the place to be if you're looking for keepers.

I reckon us signing Begovic is very likely, Fabianski will probably leave on a free and there's a strong possibility that Stoke will be going down. I wouldn't pay anything above 10m though, especially for a goalkeeper.

Have to say, I'm a bit worried that we're going to keep Fabianski now that he's been given another run. I can see us heading into the next season with Fabianski, Szczesny and Mannone (or Martínez) as the keepers, the only difference compared to this one being that the first two have switched places.

Sneezey will take that place back simply because he is a better goalkeeper. Let Flappy flap at a few more high balls, which he will because he simply is crap in that department, and Sneezey will be right back.

IMO Sneezey is the one we should keep and Flappy the one we should get rid of. With Sneezey you already have a very good goalkeeper and more importantly, you can see he has potential to iron out the flaws he has to his game. Flappy is just a lost cause.

I reckon Fabianski's being played to ensure that we can sell him on.
People had forgotten he existed so his profile needed a boost before we pin the for sale sign on him.

Doesn't his contract run out in the summer?

Oh. I checked and it seems that it's been reported that it runs out this summer but I've also read that when he signed his current contract in June 2009 that the length of the contract was not disclosed.
Hmm. Maybe we're not just advertising him then

Fabianski is in the team on merit.

I like Begovic from what i've seen but i wonder what he's like at sweeping and its impossible to judge his distribution.

Fabianski was pretty dodge against West Brom I thought.