Arsene Wenger has confirmed Arsenal are set to sign Poland goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

Fabianski, 22, is about to join the Gunners from Legia Warsaw and will challenge Jens Lehmann next season.

"That will be done," Wenger told the club's website.

"He will be our new goalkeeper. He will join us next year, be in the squad and compete for a position.

"He is one for the future. We have identified him as having all the qualities to challenge here and be one of the future great goalkeepers for Arsenal."

Wenger was, however, coy about Fabianski's chances of challenging Lehmann and Manuel Almunia for a first-team place straight away.

"We will assess him when he joins the squad to see how mature he is," the Frenchman added.

"We have to be open-minded, it is down to performances."
www.football365.com


im not gona pretend to know anything about him but hes young and could push lehmann for a spot in the 1st team.
His clip on youtube looks good but then even baptista looks good on youtube.

here it is anyway,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEIdZORCJ9c


p.s. thanks for finally starting an arsenal supporters club in australia. Good job lads.

well , from the vid I can see that he's a talented GK..but I reckon he'll be sent on a loan...that will give him time to know english football and both Jens and Almunia can compete for the 1st spot...I think Almunia is a great GK and he'll get the best out of Lehmann...

Fabianiski has got a bit of "mad Jens" in him too , I've seen another video of him getting a yellow card coz she attacked a player from the other team who was trying to get in his way...

He looks good from what I've seen of him and it's nice to have a young first team keeper as one for the future! It's been a few years without a young first team keeeper since Stewie Taylor left.

I thought Fabianski's performance was ok this morning.

He made a couple of good saves, but he still needs to learn a lot about positioning and when to come out for the ball.

It's clearly his weakness and he got a yellow card in preseason for handling outside the area because he came out too far.

Richard wrote:I thought Fabianski's performance was ok this morning.

He made a couple of good saves, but he still needs to learn a lot about positioning and when to come out for the ball.

It's clearly his weakness and he got a yellow card in preseason for handling outside the area because he came out too far.

I thought he was shite! I don't know if I'm being too harsh but I don't think he's right for us.

He was ok. But he's still got a lot to learn.

I'm fine with him, because he's still young.

I'd prefer him as 3rd choice rather than 2nd choice though.

with wenger's recent comments he may well be 1st choice. if our only 2 options for next season are fab n almunia, im gonna be sick!

He won't be first choice. Almunia will be first choice, Fabianski or an older keeper will be 2nd choice.

I think we could be Jaalkison from Bolton (I know that spelling is f#$*ed)

why is wenger so persistent with almunia! surely he has realised that every title winnin team needs a world-class GK, aka lehmann, cech n even van der saar. im afraid manuel is certainly not in that category, he simply isnt good enough to be first choice at a club like Arsenal. i'll b heavily disappointed if he were to remain our number 1 next season

mash wrote:why is wenger so persistent with almunia! surely he has realised that every title winnin team needs a world-class GK, aka lehmann, cech n even van der saar. im afraid manuel is certainly not in that category, he simply isnt good enough to be first choice at a club like Arsenal. i'll b heavily disappointed if he were to remain our number 1 next season

I don't think Van Der Sar is world class. Nor are Valdes or Kalac but they are keeping for Barca and Milan.

There's a real shortage of quality keepers at the moment. I hope Wenger can find the next star.

i disagree with u about VDS not bein world-class, but surely u must acknowledge he is hell of a lot better than almunia

mash wrote:i disagree with u about VDS not bein world-class, but surely u must acknowledge he is hell of a lot better than almunia

He played for Fulham before United. I can't imagine Fulham ever having a world class keeper. He's a lot better than Almunia though.

Richard wrote:

mash wrote:why is wenger so persistent with almunia! surely he has realised that every title winnin team needs a world-class GK, aka lehmann, cech n even van der saar. im afraid manuel is certainly not in that category, he simply isnt good enough to be first choice at a club like Arsenal. i'll b heavily disappointed if he were to remain our number 1 next season

I don't think Van Der Sar is world class. Nor are Valdes or Kalac but they are keeping for Barca and Milan.

There's a real shortage of quality keepers at the moment. I hope Wenger can find the next star.

Van der sar is an awsome keeper I hate him for playing for manure but he is world class(ok maybe i'm biast him winning the CL for ajax and being dutch)

As for the next star check out the young keeper at Bayern Leevakuusen (however its spelt) Adler I think his name is and I am a big fan of Hart the young keeper at Man city I think he would be a good buy if it could be managed.
On the subject of keepers if you want a s**t keeper buy Bolton he is a wanker I trained with him for a couple of years at the QAS I can't stand him me and a mate started rumours that his mum was sleeping with Frank Farina thats why he got into the first team...

There are a few young keepers going around, Karemi from Espanyol and Rensing from Munich look like they could be good. Viera from Villareal who we almost signed a few years ago is not too bad also.

There are a few around, but not as many as there could be.

I wasn't too impressed with him, however i think its one of his first premier league appearances and he did do decently

A Colleague of mine writes for Arsenal.com - well ex-colleague - more a friend of my cousins...
anyway - yeah, he really insisted that this kid is class...

I'd agree, he definetly does, he just needs more time, Rome wasnt built in a day

AFCArjun wrote:I'd agree, he definetly does, he just needs more time, Rome wasnt built in a day

Earth was built in seven.....

not that I believe in Christianity - Buddhist - but anyway - for the point of argument...

Caught Offside wrote:A Colleague of mine writes for Arsenal.com - well ex-colleague - more a friend of my cousins...
anyway - yeah, he really insisted that this kid is class...

I reckon he could be very good in a number of years, but will take time to develop. The way Arsene has spoken about him. He's been searching for a decent young keeper for a number of years since Taylor was sold to Villa.

If we can develop him now theres no telling how good he will be

you guys reckon he's good enough to be our no.2 now that Almunia will be no.1 ?

we need a new GK. a great one who can step into the first team ahead of manuel n def ahead of fabianski. enuff said!

mash wrote:we need a new GK. a great one who can step into the first team ahead of manuel n def ahead of fabianski. enuff said!

I think you ALL know what Richard and I's response will be...

AKINFEEV!!! i think thats how u spell it

Well from what i could see from the gamecast for the Arsenal game (they werent showing the match against sunderland), Fabiankski had an increcdible game

ye i saw the highlights, did well with som quality saves. hopefully he can step up next season in goals if wenger fails to bring in a class GK in the off season

He had a good game, he's learning, but he needs a lot more experiance.

He'll improve if he gets game time, but I'd prefer if we didn't have to use him as our keeper too much.

Fabianski has made some comments on his future with the club:

http://www.setanta.com//uk/Articles/Foo ... nid-39614/

Has this guy shown enough to suggest persisting with him or should Wenger now start looking for another futer gun GK to replace him (of course we need a gun No. 1 to replace Almunia too)

He's worth persisting with as a second or third choice keeper, but he's got a long way to becoming our number one.

He's a decent shot stopper (better than Almunia), but his spacial awareness is still lacking significantly.

We need to start looking beyond Almunia though. He was worth persisting with for a period of time, but he's not up to Arsenal's standard on the basis of his current performances. Add to the fact that he's on more money than a keeper of his ability should be, and we've got to consider moving him on.