Wojciech Szczesny, on the other hand, is capable of making the breathtaking saves Petr Cech produced regularly in his pomp. He’s much younger, and seemingly hugely improved at cutting out the lapses of concentration that punctuated his early years in London and saw him shipped off to Roma in the first place.

He still represents something of gamble, if only to see if he can reproduce his Italian maturity in the Premier League, but it’s a well-hedged gamble given he now has 132 Premier League appearances, 72 Serie A appearances and 38 Champions League games under his belt. He’s performed consistently well for the difficult-to-please Roma fans, and lest we forget he shared the Golden Glove with Cech in the 13-14 season despite Arsenal’s perennial defensive flaws.

He has also been touted as the replacement for Gigi Buffon, hardly the mark of a no-hoper.

When he went to Rome, I wrote at the time that I would rather he stayed in England to understudy Cech and learn from his experience. Time in the Italian capital seems to have had the same desired effect, infusing his game with a maturity previously lacking. He has cultivated his strengths, of which there are many, and addressed his weaknesses to return to us a much better keeper.

And of course, he once poleaxed Gareth Bale in a North London Derby.

The real challenge is to look around world football, recognising that Cech won’t play for many more seasons, and identify who we might replace him with who is of similar or better quality than Szczesny.

Price is one obstacle, but availability is another.

There are very few keepers even on a par with the Pole, and they certainly wouldn’t cost the kind of peanuts we’re being offered for our incumbent of the number one shirt.