Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny could be offered the chance of a loan move to Roma, it is understood.
The 25-year-old played in the FA Cup final win over Aston Villa at Wembley, but lost his place in the Gunners’ Premier League side to David Ospina at the turn of the year following some inconsistent performances and being fined for smoking in the showers after the defeat at Southampton.
Following the arrival of veteran Petr Cech from Chelsea, the Poland international appears set to get the chance of some regular match action with the Italian club.
Szczesny, though, remains committed to Arsenal for the long term and intent on proving himself the number one again.
Arsene Wenger this month said he would gladly keep both Szczesny and Ospina despite Cech’s arrival, but he did hint at a possible departure when he added: “We have to see if they’re happy as well. We’ll see what happens.”
Szczesny’s Arsenal contract runs for three more years, and any departure would leave Emi Martinez as the club’s No 3 keeper.
Wenger, though, will continue to monitor transfer targets ahead of the deadline, with the likes of Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang said to be on their list of targets.
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Midfielder Mathieu Flamini, meanwhile, is expected to leave for Galatasaray. Turkish newspaper AmkSpor suggests Flamini could be let go for as little as £2.8 million (Dh16m), but should the move go through, Wenger will be under pressure to bring in greater depth in the centre of midfield. Francis Coquelin is currently the only reliable option in defensive midfield.
But they could be set to lose out on rumoured long-time target Julian Draxler after his club Schalke gave Serie A giants Juvents permission to speak to the 21-year-old.
Wojciech Szczesny: Only 4 players have made more errors that have led directly to a goal in the last 4 PL seasons than Szczesny (11)
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) July 22, 2015
Schalke’s general manager Horst Heldt has confirmed that they’d agreed to allow the player’s representatives to negotiate a deal
“Juventus made a written request to be allowed to negotiate with Julian’s agent, and we have agreed to it,” he said “We have not yet received an actual offer from Turin, though.”
