Also all goalies actually become good in their Indian summers. Because naturally, they are notoriously late bloomers.
Dave Seaman, Fabien Barthez, Edwin Van Der Sar, even our own Manuel Almunia are all living examples.I remember quite vividly Almunia making his debut for us in September 2004 at a Carling Cup game against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He allowed a weak David Bellion shot to slip through his nervous hands in the 4th minute for the only goal of the game.
You could see the anguish and recriminations playing out on his face that night as he knew he shouldn’t have done that. Of course he’s gone on to improve very much since then and become our established Number One. With age, he’s gotten better. The funny thing with Almunia though is that he still hasn’t learnt to completely deal with the easy-peasy balls.
A capable shot stopper with strong arms and one of the best penalty experts anywhere in the world. Surprised? Don’t be. His record speaks very loud and proud. It is the routine shots that have embarrassed Almunia all his life and even Wenger acknowledged last season that his Number One often gets jittery in big games. Well, a club the size of Arsenal plays pretty many big games every season and it’s just not good enough having a bag of nerves between the sticks on those occasions.
Back to fumbling goalies.
It surely isn’t an easy job with all the attention and constant focus on you. Especially when goals are conceeded and worse, if your team loses. But it is the life that a goalie is perpetually condemned to. A life of blame, again and again.
Currently, with the convenient excuse of an injured elbow, Arsene Wenger has taken Almunia out ofthe firing line and looks to have installed Fabianski as the Number One for the meantime. It is the way he deals with a crisis. Never one to condemn his players in public, Wenger often chooses to spirit them away from the limelight for a time to enable everyone get off their back and ease all-round tension.
For Almunia though, it is very familiar terrain. It had happened before. The challenge for him now isn’t whatbecomes next of him. It is rather that the opposition doesn’t look up to the task of giving him a fight. Or fright.
Fabianski did well in the game against Partizan and even saved a penalty. Against Chelsea four days later, even though we lost he wasn’t at fault for any of the two goals. For a goalkeeper well-known for more than his fair share of errors, those two games were historic. But a tree does not make a forest. Just as a hood doesn’t make a monk. A couple of decent performances do not rubber stamp his claim to the Number One shirt. Not yet.
Luckily for him though, Wenger is a patient man. Who grants everyone of his players, mistakes and all, chance after fair chance to prove themselves and justify his faith in them. For someone who is famed for frugality before signing a player, it is legendary as well that he doesn’t rush to conclusions about them.
The thing with Wenger also is that to understand how his mind works, listen less to what he says. Rather look closely at what he does.
He did the unusual during the Carling Cup win at White Hart Lane three weeks back when he promoted Wojciech Szczesny to the bench. That arrangement stayed in place as well for the Chelsea game. Literally, considering his love for hierarchy, it meant the young Pole was now officially Number three. It meant he had leapfrogged Italian Vito Mannone who had all along been the third keeper behind Almunia and Fabianski.
This he did, just days after theWest Brom defeat for which Almunia was responsible and roundly blamed for two of their goals and Wojciech had gone onto to launch a very public attack on the goalkeepers ahead of him, as well as on Wenger himself. Promoting him then was very much against Wenger’s character. For someone who is a legend at the club; who is infact the defacto CEO, Wojciech’s attack was suicidal if a player at the club challenged his authority. And so openly too.
But the young Pole did it and it seems to have kickstarted his Arsenal career. He looks and sounds a supremely confident youngman at 22 and curiously that might have been what made up Wenger’s mind for him and led him to disregard the public affront from Wojciech. In one of his interviews last month threatening to walk away from the club, Wojciech cheekily declared that:
“My friends and family all say I must be patient. That breaking into the first team is more of a marathon than a sprint. But what kind of marathon is it when you keep running on the same spot for years?”
Poignant words indeed. Words and an attitude which might have pricked Wenger and make him go against his better judgement to give the young Pole a chance.
Yesterday, I was watching a rather-grainy internet trailer of the Italy-Belarus U-21 European qualifier played on Tuesday night. Italy lost that game 3-0 and their goalkeeper committed two shocking howlers that gifted the Belarussians two goals. Guess who the goalie was? Vito Mannone!
Wenger wasn’t in Minsk to see that game. He was in Metz watching over Clichy, Diaby and Nasri as they filed out for France against Luxembourg. But surely the video of that game would arrive at his desk promptly and it would not be out of place if he watches it with a smirk on his face. And a knowing nod of the head to suggest that promoting Wojciech over Mannone was justified afterall.
Whether Almunia’s days are numbered or not, it is very premature to say for now but tacitly Wenger thinks highly of Wojciech and his reaction to the youngman’s outburst has clearly made him move to accommodate him. Once again, almost all goalkeepers’ careers are things of twilight. With that in mind, Wenger would be very wary of avoiding the lack of perseverance that made him ditch Alex Manninger in 2001, after the young Austrian had deputised admirably for Seaman - who was on the last legs of a long and brilliant career.
Despite a record eight clean sheets for us in season 1997-98, Manninger committed his fair share of clangers and was promptly shoved aside for Richard Wright in 2001. I recollect very well that he was sent out on loan to Fiorentina, who returned him to us after 24 games and the poor chap was left in limbo, training with us but not registered as a player. Events took a bizarre turn for him when after being sold to Espanyol for £900,000 on a four-year deal in July 2002, he returned to us again after just seven weeks without playing a game!
Eventually, he was snapped up by Torino in January 2003 and eventually bounced around the Serie A for the next four seasons with five clubsides. Though he never became a great goalie, he still did well for himself by donning the Austrian Number One shirt 36 times before retiring in 2009 and is now the main man between the sticks for Juventus. Yet another late bloomer. Not bad ay?
Wenger’s misjudgement on Manninger many, many years ago may be haunting him now. Which may be why he has allowed himself to be armtwisted into giving Wojciech a chance.
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