With the soon to be completed signing of defender Sebastien Squillaci, Arsene Wenger has addressed all of Arsenal’s off-season needs except one: Goalkeeper. So where are the Gunners on finding a new number one?
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Arsenal are prepared to double their offer to Fulham for Mark Schwarzer. That would put the revised bid at around £4million.
If the Schwarzer deal does not go through Arsenal have been linked with Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg who played for Holland in the World Cup. Stekelenburg is 28 which makes him almost ten years younger than Schwarzer.
Then there are the Shay Given’s rumors. Yes he wants away from Man City, but I cannot see City selling him to a title contender.
Who do you think will be the Arsenal number 1 when the transfer window closes?
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Big Steke
By the sight of this goalkeeping situation, Almunia is likely to be our #1 this season.
I’d take Cherie Blair if it meant never seeing Almunia in an Arsenal shirt again. Poor keeper. Sorry, but not good enough to wear the shirt.
ALMUNIA
1st.
Mark Schwarzer is going to be Arsenal’s no. 1 – FACT.
Schwarzer! Hope 1st or at least 2nd!!
Arsene is reluctant to go fot stekelenberg becuz he doesnt want to discourage or ruin the futures of our young goal keepers. But come on stekelenberg is a better buy than schwarzer and given because we would get so many more years out of him. Not to mention that Ajax is willing to sell the guy to gain some revenue.
i hope he doesn’t sign mark schwarzer, he’s way past his best and he’s too slow. in my opinion he should sign maarten steklenberg from ajax, he’s 28, he has a commanding presence and wouldn’t cost much more than the £4m fulham are asking for a has been. i know he’s cup-tied but he could play after the group stages, which we’ve never had any problems qualifying from before. i also think even when we sign squillaci we’ll still need another defender and with juan and ciani being mentioned a lot today, u never know it could be on the cards.
Stecklenberg has played for Ajax in the Champion’s League play-offs, and would thus be cup-tied for Arsenal in that competition. Non-starter.
any keeper will do as long as we sign a keeper im not fussed shwarzer might b slow but look at van der sar 4 man u he still looks gud enough and isn’t he 39-40
Akinfeev or fray if any one of them will become our no1 then arsenal can really challenge for Champions league and F.A cup and will easily win Premier league cuz we came this close of lifting the premier league but in the end almunia and flappyhandski concede some cheap goals and we finished third but if we have a world class keeper we can win it easily thats for sure. arsene buy Akinfeev, Fray or Lloris if you want to end arsenal 5 years trophy drought.
Is there any truth in the rumour that Schwarzer has already had and failed a medical due to an iffy knee ?. Steklenburg would be cup tied in the CL until we reach the knockout stages we could use him in the prem but would we really want to use Manuel or Flappy in the Cl until then ? For me i wouldnt want Wenger to spend 4 mil on Schwarzer and only have use of him for 2 seasons at 2 mil a season that would be a waste.
P.S if you do hear someone supporting Manuel in the clock end please dont look at him like he’s dog shit, he’s just supporting what we’ve got on the pitch
P.P.S Shut yer mouth Mourinho you only win by spending 100′s of millions at every club you go to (just in case he’s flicking through the Arsenal Blogs) time to put on another smoking patch i think
I think we need a young and a better gkper like stekelenberg.
stekelenberg would be better than schwarzer
I hope the number one turns out to be either Given or Stekelenburg because for me Schwarzer’s not that much better than what we have at arsenal already
hello guys, arsenal should make an offer for joe hart at 100M
we should sign given because he is good and not cup-tied. and I also like steklenberg. if we couldn’t sign given sign steklenberg. arsene sign one of them.
I propose SHY GIVEN to b no. 1 ARSENAL goalkeeper come the end of this transfer summer & hope wegar will go for GIVEN otherwise if all goes wrong he can else well consider SCHWARZER to be the next option if given fails ‘ARSENAL DAMU’
Mourinho will always envy arsenal. He is such a moaner. He wants to go down in to history books… lol… history books footballing villains.. what a jerk,
There’s little question of the better keeper–Steklenburg. The World Cup proved that. And with the Dutchman’s relatively young age, we address the position for years to come. I think the cup tied bit works to our advantage: we may be able to persuade Almunia to stay until the January window, allowing him to prove himself for sale. Pay whatever Ajax want and bring the Steklenburg to London.
Mr. Jose Mourinho, why don’t you focus on the job at hand and see how you can compete with Barcelona rather than putting your mouth where it does not belong. If you are dreaming of taking up coaching position at Arsenal afetr Wenger, you have failed.
Come end of the EPL you will be disappointed and to make matter worse for you, your team will just chase Barcelona to no avail. At the end of the season you will be trophyless. Who choose you by the way that some people are refering to you as the chosing one.
stekelenberg
The GK issue been talking by Mr.Wenger for sometime since last season but what he has done after so long the issue has coz blunder to arsenal team. now no new and yet fulham / city are not going to sell the gk to arsenal
now the window almost close to i believe NO ONE COME TO ARSENAL FOR GK issue …WENGER SHIT AND RUBBISH IN MARKET
I think buying steklenburg would be a good deal to arsene Wenger than getting schwarzer who is 10 years older than the Holland goal keeper.
Why will Wenger want to sign Stekelenburg who is cup-tied (European competition)???
only shay given will be the ablity to arsenal no1