Chelsea: Juventus goalkeeper could be Pochettino’s dream Onana option
New Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino is rumored to be on the lookout for a new goalkeeper, with the Blues seemingly being linked to a new candidate every day.
Wojciech Szczesny, the goalkeeper for Juventus, has emerged as a prospective target for the Premier League club, following links with Illan Meslier and Andre Onana this week.
What is the current status of Wojciech Szczesny’s destiny with Juventus?
Six years after his departure from Arsenal, Chelsea is reportedly exploring a deal to bring Szczesny back to the Premier League.
It is reported that Juventus, who failed to qualify for the Champions League next season, would be prepared to accept an offer between €15 million and €20 million (£13 million and £18 million) this summer.
Szczesny, whose contract at the Allianz Stadium has two years remaining, is also said to be a target for ambitious Saudi Arabian clubs, who could easily match that valuation.
Is Wojciech Szczesny a preferable alternative to Andre Onana?
According to the aforementioned report, Onana is still Chelsea’s top priority, but if it becomes apparent that Inter Milan are unwilling to sell, the West London club would contemplate pursuing Szczesny.
Onana is coming off a tremendously successful season in which he kept the most clean sheets (eight) and made the most saves (47) of any goalkeeper during Inter’s Champions League run, which ended on Saturday with a 1-0 defeat to Manchester City.
The former Cameroon international is proficient in a variety of areas, but so is Szczesny, who is six years older than Onana but has more Premier League experience.
Between 2010 and 2015, Szczesny made 132 Premier League appearances for Arsenal before moving to Roma and then to Serie A rivals Juventus.
Szczesny has maintained a clean sheet in 44.7% of his Juventus appearances over the past 12 months, indicating that he is still more than capable of serving as Chelsea’s starting goalkeeper.
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This places him in the top 6% of his positional counterparts across Europe’s top five leagues and is significantly better than Kepa Arrizabalaga (32.4%) and Edouard Mendy (10%), the players he will replace at Stamford Bridge. Onana has maintained a clean sheet in 43.2% of his matches played.
Goalkeepers cannot be evaluated solely on clean sheets – defenders play an equally essential role in that metric – but Szczesny excels in other areas, including arguably the most crucial: shot stopping.
According to reporter Sam Street, the “world-class” Pole saved 75.3% of the shots he encountered in Serie A last season, second only to Lazio’s Ivan Provedel (77.3%) and ahead of Onana (73.5%). Kepa saved 73.3% of shots encountered in the Premier League last season, while Mendy saved 64.1%.
After dethroning the legendary Gianluigi Buffon to become Juve’s starting goalkeeper and maintaining the position for the past five seasons, there is no indication that Szczesny will retire in the Middle East.
In April, Szczesny said, “Being at Juventus makes me happy and motivated,” amid rumors that he could be leaving.
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Nevertheless, if the rumors are true, the feeling is not mutual, and Juve will seek to capitalize this summer. In such a scenario, Chelsea would be wise to at least contemplate matching Juventus’s valuation.
Chelsea: Juventus goalkeeper could be Pochettino’s dream Onana option