Luckily it looks like Szczesny hasn’t let that stop him.

Since we allowed him to leave, he has been able to get more game time and more experience on the continent. He is now showing at Roma that with a little application and a maturity, he can be the main man for a top European club. He has fought off competition from a new goalkeeper signed for €7.5m, and made the number one shirt his own. And he’s still only 26.

As Lee wrote a while ago, if he wasn’t already an Arsenal player, we’d be screaming at Wenger to sign him. (Incidentally, that’s a great read – it still rings true a few months on)

I know many didn’t agree with me at the time, but I would have rather not have signed Cech than lose Szczesny altogether. And now, as Cech continues to slide down the mountain of form, Szczesny is still ascending the other side.

Many Arsenal fans are – understandably – negative towards the Pole, remembering the high profile errors. For me, I remember the boy who saved a Dirk Kuyt penalty and a string of fine saves in a 2-1 victory over Liverpool. The boy who saved a penalty in the crucial Champions League qualifier against Udinese. The boy who floored Gareth Bale in the process of collecting a high ball in the North London Derby. And then winked.

He’s a world class keeper, he’s also a character, and he’s finally matured from a boy into a man, just at the right time.

And Arsenal need a man like Wojciech Szczesny.