12 days later

HomeSteak lot of love for Szczesny but choosing Cech over him was absolutely the right decision at the time.

      Clrnc complete agreement. His unnecessary signing was exacerbated by the fact it was the only first team signing we made that summer. Terrible decision making by the club, whoever was responsible for it.

        Clrnc think there's a fair bit of revisionism going on here. Cech looked like an upgrade when he signed. It only lasted about a season but it wasn't the horrendous signing that some suggest.

            On a slightly more serious note, I guess I just felt what Cech gave us for one season wasn't worth losing Szczesny for the rest of his career. That said, Arsène was clearly done with the Pole and given the very recent evidence we have around the importance of high standards - and being ruthless about those standards, it's hard to say he was wrong.

            It just makes you wonder why he tolerated shit from everyone else.

              Cech didn't look better than Szczesny at all and what's worse is Szcz kept improving and had a pretty great career.

              RocktheCasbah Well yeah, but the thing was for some reason Wenger was ruthless to about 3-4 players only, the rest can do as they please....anyways. Cech was decent for about 2 months, he was old and busted, and it was a mistake to take him here. Fuck him

                  HomeSteak Well yeah, but the thing was for some reason Wenger was ruthless to about 3-4 players only, the rest can do as they please

                  Isn't that what I said, just in slightly different words? 😃

                    RocktheCasbah yeah, I can understand this perspective. I just disagree that Cech was the inferior 'keeper when he joined. Szczesny wasn't improving in terms of positioning and decision-making (things that Cech was comfortably an upgrade on). In his first season, Cech kept more clean sheets than any other GK in the league and I remember the positive response he received from fans and journalists.

                    I also think people forget out how much of a problem Ches had become, he just didn't look like he was improving and in all likelihood, probably needed a change of environment to kick on.

                    Things did start to go downhill as Cech's physical capabilities started to decline and we started to put more ball playing demands on the GK spot but honestly I think people's opinions are coloured by how his last season with us ended (ie. the dreadful defeat in Baku against the team he then rejoined).

                        Don Pacifico Don't think there are much positives from the fans, journos maybe but they are just riding on the bandwagon of his ex glories. He made the most mistakes that directly led to us dropping points from the very first season already and went downhill from then on. Those days our GK situation was really poverty. When we finally signed Leno he was like a breath of fresh air.

                        Ospina was no better but I can maybe forgive him for the crucial role he had to us winning the FA Cup. I have 0 fond memories of Cech and he probably don't care about us at all too

                            Well to be fair to Cech, look at the defense he had in front of him. We were not exactly setting the world on fire with our defensive prowess back then. That said, he did let in his fair share of clangers

                            Clrnc I mean I thought he was good in his first season and I know I wasn't alone at the time.

                            In terms of errors, I'm gonna invoke the 'show me the stats' clause because in 2015/2016, Boruc made the most errors leading to a goal (5) versus Cech on 2. And it's not like he wasn't tested because he made the 3rd highest number of saves out of any GK that season (pretty unusual for a team that finished 2nd as per the point @USArsenal made about our defensive quality); as I said before, he also achieved the most clean sheets of anyone too.

                            So yeah, currently the data I've seen supports my memory of that season.

                              RocktheCasbah this kid had seriously bad timing with his injuries. without injury setbacks, i imagine he is able to develop with the others and be part of the core 16 or so. but as we can see with even a top player like Jesus, big injuries can turn you to dust.

                                Yeah, I know. Gonna suck when he scores the winning goal at the Cottage.