The goodwill around signing a world class player for Arsenal is enormous. The feeling around the team as well as the supporters gets a face lift. It generally translates into points even before the action begins. This is probably one of the reasons why supporters want their club to go for marquee signings. The Gooners are no exception and that explains the discussion on big names.
But, there is a catch to this whole situation. A big player’s arrival or anticipated arrival is welcomed with ambiguity on the status of the incumbent. Long story short – the impending arrival of Petr Cech has cast a shadow on the position of David Ospina.
The Colombia national goalkeeper is by no means a bad keeper. In fact, far from it; ever since his strong showing in the World cup, Ospina has moved from strength to strength. People attribute Colombia’s success in Brazil to James Rodriguez’ goals but equal credit should go to Ospina’s performances between the sticks.
And then he proved his worth at Arsenal with a strong showing through the season. Ever since he replaced Wojciech Szczesny, Ospina made the position his own. After a long time it looked like the Gunners had a keeper to rely upon game after game.
The pursuit of Cech changed the entire scenario. Wenger wants to improve options at every position that can help the team challenge for trophies and there is no doubt that Cech is an option that can lift Arsenal to even greater heights, but there is the nagging feeling that Ospina could also be a world-beater.
Now that the deal for Cech is close to completion, it remains to be seen how Ospina will react to the situation. It is reported many times that he is ready to take up new challenges and wouldn’t want to be second choice keeper. Various reports linked him with Fenerbahce.
Whether he wanted to prove himself to Wenger or improve his worth in the shopping window, Ospina showed his best skills once more in the Copa America. Especially in the quarter-final against Argentina where he kept the Argentine super stars Aguero and Messi at bay.
Ospina made several other vital stops too, to stretch the favorites to penalties. But even his best showing couldn’t stop Colombia from crashing out. This however proved that Ospina could be a great option for any club.
It remains to be seen if his future is at the Emirates or any other club. As things stand today, it seems more likely to be away than at North London, which just seems to be very unfair to me…
Sridhar
I refuse to read the article, not interested in your “reasoning”.
Petr Cech is a country mile on top of a lightyear better than Ospina. “But Ospina was awesome vs Brazil!”, yea and Sanogo scored 4 in 30mins vs Benfica but I still reckon Benzema is better.
Wake up some of you Arsenal fans, it’s embarrassing.
@Champagne Charlie, what are you smoking in your bed this morning? The article is one of the best I have seen on this site! Ospina is going to be a world beater in a years time.
Haha why would he be smoking in bed… That’s a very odd placement 🙂
But I respectfully disagree. Ospina’s performed admirably, but hardly put in performances that suggest he’s going to set the world alight.
Cech has proved himself at the highest level for near on a decade.. There’s a substantial gulf in quality
The GK has never been our most critical problem .
Even szczeny won the golden gloves as bad as he is.
Our problem has always been right through our spine.
Defense : commanding central defender
Hybrid Defensive/attacking midfield .
Striker : deadly and quick
We are simply not putting teams and games to bed . And when we score first , teams run through our spine and Nick a goal.
Agreed completely. Rather than comment further I have cut and paste an article I saw some time ago – I found it revealing; why we love a goalscorer beyond all else, why defenders/GKs are merely tolerated as a “necessary evil” and how we underestimate massively the relative importance of not conceding versus scoring a goal.
“The question that the ballon d’or brings up is whether all of us – the people who watch, report on and even run football – are guilty of completely undervaluing the defensive side of the game? Are we so enamoured – obsessed even – by attack and goals that we ignore the importance of its counterbalance? The short answer is yes. The goal, after all, is why we watch in the first place and the relative rarity of its occurrence in a football match is in many ways what makes it different from the higher scoring team sports like basketball and rugby.
The whole framework of how we watch football supports this. The sport can almost be split into the good guys, the artists – those trying to create, to score, to win – and the defenders, those trying to negate, block, and not lose. We remember goals, moves, flicks and finishes. Rarely do we look back misty-eyed at a defensive hoof that may or may not have prevented a goal.
It’s why huge transfer fees are paid for goalscorers and creators and clubs don’t sell as many shirts for its full-backs as its centre-forwards. In the excellent book The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football Is Wrong, authors Chris Anderson and David Sally outline these reasons but have also gone one further in analysing the phenomenon.
They analysed a decade of Premier League matches to determine the relative value of goals and clean sheets in terms of picking up league points. The conclusion turns our understanding of football on its head. “It turns out that clean sheets on average produce almost 2.5 points per match. Compared to scoring a goal, which on average earns a team about one point per match, not conceding is more than twice as valuable.”
In other words: “Goals that don’t happen are even more important than goals that do”.
So why does everyone in football overlook this? Part of it is simple psychology. “Attacking has one best outcome: a goal. But defending is quite the opposite: there, the best outcome is a goal that is not conceded, an event that does not actually happen.” It explains why the human brain prefers the immediate pleasure of a goal to a vaguely defined non-negative. It’s hard to stand up and cheer and shout for a non-event”.
In reply to your article, I would like to quote yourself from your first paragrapgh,
“The goodwill around signing a world class player for Arsenal is enormous. The feeling around the team as well as the supporters gets a face lift. It generally translates into points even before the action begins. This is probably one of the reasons why supporters want their club to go for marquee signings.”
Cech is that marquee signing. End of.
I like Ospina but its Petr Cech man, it makes more sense to sell Sczezny if Ospina is willing to be #2, we have enough home grown players without him.
Enough home grown
players without Szcz?
Same argument applies
to injury wreck Jack Wilshere
and over rated injury prone Ox.
Sell them both for a total of 70 mill
before they morph into Diaby’s.
Enough to buy Vidal (for Wilshere)
and Abameyang for (Chamberlain)
Armchair management at it’s finest. Crazy idea! We keep two of our best prospects and trim the squad of players who actually aren’t going to feature for the first-team next season (Podolski, Flamini, Campbell) and use the revenue from having a worldwide fanbase, huge stadium and 100’s of millions of dollars in sponsorship and endorsements to acquire the 2-3 players we need?? (one of which is supposedly only 10.9mil)
People may actually take your suggestions seriously if you didn’t constantly suggest selling our best players and prospects and change your opinions literally on a daily basis..
You don’t see the things others don’t, comparing every player who stubs his toe to Diaby isn’t realism or intelligence, it’s stupidity, and the reason you’re often on the side contrary to common opinion is you disrespect the team and our players constantly mainly to due with figments of your imagination and unfounded predictions based on absolutely nothing at all.
Sczezney is a better keeper than Ospina. I have watched both closely, Ospina is not as commanding as fans claim. If only he played for a wobbling Arsenal team you all would have seen that he isn’t as good as Sczezny. He came in when the team was stable and riding high. In most of the games we stood little chance of losing and were rarely under pressure. Look at the Monaco game which we were woeful defensively did he perform any magic?
I respect you made this article highlighting the opposite opinion just to see what arguments can be raised but Petr Cech is for me amongst the top5 goalkeepers in the world right now.
Ospina has been faultless coming in but has he “REALLY” been better than Szczesny of 2014?? think about it, apart from his blunder at Southampton?? He has been pretty decent, not amazing but pretty good and i remember an amazing performance vs West Ham. Both are talented but they have a similar problem which is commanding the box and showing presence however Ospina is the more flexible shot stopper and very quick off his feet similar to Casillas. I prefer Ospina to Szczesny who can maybe learn to command the box like De Gea did.
But why get Cech??
– top5 possibly top3 keepers
– set pieces (our biggest defensive weakness)
– can lead a defence when our back4 are confused or slipping up
– he is a proven winner and knows the mentality required in the locker room
– game winning saves
….
people may say he is old but i remember Van Der Sar at 34 being crucial to the 3 PL titles in a row for United and UCL success.
Thankyou so, so, so much!
Ospina was shaky on a lot of opposition set-pieces, and had an opponent got their head on the ball a lot more question marks would have been raised.
His limitations in his stature are often masked by his good reflexes, but he simply does not have confidence in his command of the area the way the elite keepers do, and I personally don’t think he ever will.
I have lot of respect for Ospina and I know he will improve day by day but as of now he is not wotld class. On other hand Cech is truly WC. He has 11 years of exp in PL and has won many trophies.
At age of 33 He is still far better than our GKs.
if Wenger wants then sell or loan Szc and keep Ospina as second choice. He will learn from Petr but I doubt he will agree to stay as second choice.
Truly said
Forgive me, I`m a “dumb shit”. Why is Maurinho allowing Chec to join a local neighbour who he hates? Why is he second choice at Chelsea? Why would he want to join Arsenal? Why would Wenger be looking for a backup to Chec when he has Ospina and Sczcesny? Why did he let Fabinaski go, who is doing great at Swansea? Is Chec all that good? Myself I don`t see Chec in Arsenal colours, they just don`t suit him.
ok.
1.) I doubt he would, if other information is anything to go by it’s Abrohamovic who has stepped in and let Cech choose his desired destination due to his long servitude and loyalty to the club. Cech’s 33, has a wife and kid. I highly doubt uprooting his family and moving elsewhere is high on his priority list.
2.) If you’ve watched Chelsea at all this season Courtois is world-class. There’s maybe 3-4 GK’s in the world who would’ve started ahead of him
3.) What? He’s not looking for a back-up for Sczeszny or Ospina, he’s apparently secured a superior keeper as both of them currently have their limitations and Cech is complete. (Ospina – command of the area, Sczeszny – decisions)
4.) Fabianski and Cech are incomparable…
5.) Yes. Yes he is, look at his track record, win ratio, his experience and the fact that he is precious few games off reaching the premier league clean-sheet record. I’ll also point out multiple PK saves on Chelsea’s CL run… It’s not fun to look at a rival’s accomplishments, but he was imperative to their capture of the most coveted trophy, especially against Bayern.
If you have question marks, youtube his performances vs Bayern and Barcelona.. Multiple world-class saves at the highest level.
6.) Well… Bad luck! he’s coming, and IMO will be as defining as the inclusions of Ozil and Sanchez.
If he is as quality as the article suggests why is the only rumoured destination Fernabahce??
For me he’s a great reactive keeper, but not a proactive keeper. The positions he takes up always seem to be a bit deeper than other GK’s, which I personally think is to give himself an extra split second and rely to heavily on his good reflexes and make up for his smaller stature.
When you watch Neuer, De Gea, Curtois, Cech and Joe Hart (not this season, but seasons prior) and other world-class goal-keepers they leave less to chance, make themselves big at every possible opportunity and close down the angles to the best of their abilities. It’s what sets them apart from Ospina IMO. Also, his command of the area and set pieces were shaky to say the least on multiple occassions, and was bailed out from a number of situations caught in no man’s land by one of our players getting their head to the ball first.
He has performed admirably, but I just get the feeling that he’ll always be a good hustle and reflex keeper but his presence, command and stature will never be great.
Ospina’s future is a guess – he is still not totally proven. Cech is solid and proven – you know what you get with Cech.
It might be worth the gamble to go with Ospina. But do you want to bet the farm on it??
Just asking.
admin I think sometimes you have nothing to write about and just think of one stupid topic to turn some of your reader’s head toward your direction just to fill the comments box…..after reading the topic I didn’t even bother to read the rest!, I keep telling fans to review the 3rd goal we conceded against Monaco, Ospina did all he could but it was not enough cause of his height, we are just slating our #1 keeper cause of his pride,the fact is that he is in the same league with Ospina, and chec is miles ahead of both
here we go with the height bullshit again, why doesn’t lloris get this nonsense?
The biggest problem we have had in the last decade is the balance of having experienced winners in the team. czech will bring that and sczesny will develop because of it. What the article should have been about is why sign vidal when we have so many attacking midfielders. just get a DM and a striker.
I like Ospina and sentiments apart, I believe he is a great Keeper. I don’t blame him if he decides to leave as I don’t want to see him play second fiddle to Mr. Cech whom when once asked during his early prime seasons at Chelsea what he thought then of preferring Chelsea to Arsenal said, “I’m very happy I didn’t join them now seeing what I know now”. Same Arsenal he wants to join now at 33 just as a fodder (yes, true) for his kids at school in London. Besides Cech is no longer the Keeper he used to be. Ospina on the other hand has done very well with the back four at his disposal positions where Cech has had the cushion of strength in his years at Chelsea. I’m not sure if he would be talked about in such glowing terms if he was lumbered with the same back four Arsenal has had in the last decade! Please keep Ospina but tell them all to fight for the number 1 shirt. I like your article!!!
You went full retard! Never go full retard!
Oh Men, Quality player is coming (Cech) and we still complain…Why are we like this? We have been so fickle’.. Ospina is good and I really like Him but saying ‘We shouldn’t sign Cech’ is pointless. I know most fans will say thrash about Ospina if He makes one or two mistakes in goal. Remember how we said we should get a goalie after games to Monaco (1st leg) and Swansea (Emirates) last season? That how we have become. Fans keep changing their minds in matter of minutes.. Ospina is good but Cech is better.
Main reason i would go for cech is the psychological effect he would bring to the team, just like le coq otherwise I am okay with Ospina.
People are so obsessed with this “world class players’ and they don’t mind throwing around money even in areas which don’t need strengthening. Cech looks like a world class goalkeeper because in front of him are very good and well drilled defenders of Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Matic. So don’t be surprised when he come to Arsenal and start leaking goal! I for one will not pay 11m for a 34 year old player with a year left on his contract, giving him 100 000/week !
Wonder… A very relevant user-name.
I’m truly wondering if someone could actually believe that reasoning….
Is Neuer over-rated as well because of Bayern’s defence??
Remember John Terry speaking about the extra 15 points Cech could win us? That would put us right on track for title challenge. This same guy wrote an article similar to this – as to why we should not sign Arturo Vidal. Maybe the author is against WC signings that could win us titles next season.
Let us buy all available players as they all an upgrade from what we have then! This writer is just reasonable, asking if we are really strengthening the right areas. People here dont learn, AW bought Ozil for 42m but I still feel we could have done something better with that money by investing in a good striker and defender right then!
I see this decision as very similar to fabregas last year Mr Wenger decided against signing Fabregas because he got Ozil, correct decision.
Mr Wenger should not sign Cech because he got Ospina who is more of a long term solution. Cech was the better keeper but not at this present moment in time. At £11 million and over £100,000 per week Cech is far to expensive both in terms of transfer free and wages I hope this transfer fail.
Mr Wenger got probably the second best squad of players in the premier League all he have to do is improve on the way Arsenal play in term of consistancy, effectiveness, effeciency and control games in which they score very early. This was Arsenal biggest problem last season, at times in game the entire Arsenal team went back to defend hence occupying a very small portion of the pitch allowing the opposition team the entire pitch and complete control of possession. Danny Welbeck was the biggest culprit of that.
For the exception of Podolski no players should come in of leaves the Emirates this year. All we have to do is to improve on the way we play not buy of sell players.
Shezz will pick so much good from PC and that alone will do arsenal the world of good
Sczezney is a better keeper than Ospina. I have watched both closely, Ospina is not as commanding as fans claim. If only he played for a wobbling Arsenal team you all would have seen that he isn’t as good as Sczezny. He came in when the team was stable and riding high. In most of the games we stood little chance of losing and were rarely under pressure. Look at the Monaco game which we were woeful defensively did he perform any magic?