Arsenal given Wojciech Szczesny transfer answer as Mikel Arteta faces familiar summer "problem"

Arsenal journalist Charles Watts "vouched" for the Gunners to re-sign Barcelona's Wojciech Szczesny last summer, and he would not turn his nose up to a reunion with the veteran goalkeeper now.

Mikel Arteta is currently without a recognised number two following Neto's return to parent club Bournemouth, leaving David Raya without significant senior cover heading into pre-season.

Espanyol's Joan Garcia was thought to be Arsenal's number one target for a new shot-stopper, but the Spaniard is now expected to head to Barcelona, who currently have Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Szczesny in between the posts.

One of the latter duo could be pushed out of the club by Garcia, and while Watts would welcome a "romantic return" for Szczesny, he questioned whether such a move is realistic.

"It looks like the more likely to leave would be Ter Stegen," he told Sports Mole. "Szczesny is probably going to sign a new deal. He would come with quite high wages, and with your number two goalkeeper, do you really want to invest those sort of wages? I'm not sure.

"I flip-flopped between it too - do you want a younger goalkeeper or an experienced Neto-like goalkeeper? It's a tough one, a real difficult situation for Arsenal to solve. But last summer, I was vouching for Szczesny.

"Romantic return feel" to Szczesny Arsenal homecoming

"I thought that would be a really sensible move, so I wouldn't be against it if it happens now. But he retired at the end of last season - the only reason he went to Barcelona was because he was going to be playing.

"Is he really going to want to sit on the bench in maybe the final year of his career? I'm not sure. There's that romantic return feel to it, but when you try and look at it realistically, I'm not sure it's one for club or for the player."

Szczesny made 181 appearances across six seasons for Arsenal between 2009 and 2015, although he only rose to global prominence in Serie A with Juventus following his departure from the Emirates.

The Poland international had hung up his boots in 2024 before being tempted back to the game by Barcelona amid their goalkeeping injury crisis, keeping an impressive 14 clean sheets in 30 games last season and earning a La Liga winners' medal.

However, with Szczesny looking likely to continue at Camp Nou for at least another year, Arsenal's current number two options include Karl Hein, Tommy Setford, Lucas Nygaard, Alexei Rojas and Jack Porter.

Thankfully for the Gunners, Raya was fully fit for the entirety of the 2024-25 season, but Watts has warned Arteta that his side could struggle immensely without the right planning if the Spaniard is ever unavailable.

Goalkeeper is "problem area" every summer for Arsenal

"It seems like it's a problem area every single summer transfer window for Arsenal at the moment. It's just chop and change, chop and change," Watts said of Arsenal's goalkeeper situation.

"Garcia, I'm not surprised that's looking like it's going to end up the way it is. It's an incredibly hard sell; when he's basically named goalkeeper of the year in Spain and then you're going to say 'come to Arsenal and be number two' How do you sell that? He's just not going to make that move.

"It looks like he's going to be number one [at Barcelona]. But that leaves Arsenal with something to solve. They just about solved it at the end of the last window, but not in a very successful way. Neto came in, did the job, but literally played one game, couldn't play in the Carabao Cup games because they left it so late and he was cup tied.

"You want to avoid that situation, you want to give David Raya a little bit more rest and protect yourself slightly better. Arsenal are pretty lucky that David Raya stayed completely injury free; what we saw from Neto in his one appearance, had he been called upon for a six-week period, Arsenal would have really, really struggled.

"Karl Hein would be perfect for a season. But I can completely understand if he wants to go now, really crack on in his career and play week in week out like he did last season. I's another problem for Andre Berta to solve, one he's going to have to get clever with."

Having lost out in the race for Garcia, Arsenal are now said to be seriously considering signing Chelsea shot-stopper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who could join the Gunners for a paltry £5m thanks to a release clause in his Blues deal.

Written by
Ben Knapton