Free Agent XI - Who can clubs sign for free at the end of the 2015/16 season?
The competition amongst football clubs for transfer bargains is a perennial competition. However, nothing trumps the price of free. With many footballers in contractual negotiations as their contract winds down, it’s not just cash-strapped clubs who are looking to sign free agents in the summer.The quality of footballers who are being allowed to wind down their contracts is surprisingly good, with legitimate quality on offer this summer. Given the specter of the Chinese Premier League, Qatar and the MLS, the players hands at the negotiating table are stronger, as agents can legitimately claim big money interest.Here is a XI of free-agents in the summer:
#1 Goalkeepers
Wojciech Szczesny – Arsenal’s Polish shot-stopper was farmed out on loan to Roma after Arsene Wenger signed Petr Cech in the summer. Szczesny had already lost his first-team place to David Ospina after a horror show against Southampton in the 2014/15 season, which meant that his chances of regaining the spot back all but evaporated when Wenger spent £10 million to bring in Cech.
Szczesny has been pretty much a regular for Roma this season, as the Pole has performed fairly well for the Giallorossi this season, although his distribution still causes heart-stopping moments for many in the Stadio Olimpico. Szczesny was Rudi Garcia’s first choice, and seems to have retained the 1st team spot after Luciano Spalletti’s arrival, although reports in the Italian press note that the Italian does not want to retain Szczesny after his loan spell.
Sky Sports recently reported that the Pole is out of contract in the summer, which is at odds with previous information that Szczesny had signed a four-year deal in 2013. While it is unlikely that Arsenal would have allowed the Pole’s contract to expire, the fact that Szczesny is the goalkeeper who has conceded the most goals in this season’s Champions League will mean that he cannot command a significant fee.