• Premier League

Szczesny's dad tees off at Wenger

ESPN staff
March 20, 2013
Wojciech Szczesny has missed out on Arsenal's last two games © Getty Images
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The father of Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny believes Arsene Wenger must take some of the blame for his son's recent drop in form.

Szczesny, 22, has had a tough time of late having lost his place in the Arsenal team to Lukasz Fabianski.

Wenger left the Poland international out of the squad for the trip to Bayern Munich, with the Frenchman citing the player's mental state as being behind his reasoning, while the goalkeeper was on the bench at Swansea on Saturday.

Maciej Szczesny - who won seven caps for Poland and helped Legia Warsaw reach the quarter-finals of the 1995-96 Champions League - says the Gunners boss needs to share some of the responsibility for his son's recent decline.

"Wenger already started to look for the scapegoat. It is not the way the boss should behave," he told Przeglad Sportowy. "Wojciech has had two serious injuries. He played with one in April and May (last year). He shouldn't have agreed to play that time, but the coach insisted. Wojciech did not train the whole week and then a warm up on Friday and played the match on Saturday. He was naturally more susceptible to minor injuries and his form was going down.

"Wenger was playing with the young man's good health and Wojciech agreed foolishly. In my opinion Mr Wenger messed up a lot in April and May. I don't blame the young man who went along with his coach, his current lack of form is a result of those two months.

"Then in August there was an ankle injury after which he played almost instantly. After seven weeks out Wojciech trained for just seven days and played the match. How on earth can he be on his highest form?''

Despite his son's recent troubles, Szczesny Snr is confident that he will regain his place as Arsenal's No. 1 soon.

"This last period has not been successful for Wojciech, the fact that Arsene Wenger did not take him to Munich shows something,'' he said. "However, I think my son can be the number one keeper for over ten years, he just needs to come back to form and then a situation where we can stop to wonder who will stand between the posts.''

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