According to the embellishment, which is typical of these tales, Lukasz Fabianski had a tear in his eye. We are not talking about the Arsenal goalkeeper's infamous Champions League night in Oporto, or the FA Cup semi-final horror show against Chelsea; rather an incident from his formative days as a Legia Warsaw player.
His team-mate could hardly believe his eyes. He was leaving the cinema with his young family when he spotted Fabianski in a nearby seat. He was alone. The film was Bambi.
Unfortunately for the goalkeeper, footballers rarely keep these things quiet and let them lie. The subsequent dressing-room inquest was relentless and unforgiving, yet Fabianski was unrepentant. Bambi is his favourite film. What was wrong with that? From then on, Fabianski became known as Bambi, not only to his Legia team-mates but also in sections of the Polish press.
The episode tells us two things about the man who is currently Arsenal's No1 and who hopes to remain as such when Manuel Almunia finally recovers from his elbow injury in one or two weeks' time. In a profession and, more specifically, a position in which brashness and even a little bit of madness is the norm, Fabianski is different. The 25-year-old is no Artur Boruc or Tomasz Kuszczak, his rivals for the Poland jersey, of Fiorentina and Manchester United respectively. He is quiet, shy and somewhat sensitive. He is simply a nice, down-to-earth bloke.
Secondly, Fabianski certainly has the courage of his convictions. His problems at Arsenal, whom he joined from Legia in the summer of 2007, have been linked to confidence and the difficulty of showing his quality when the pressure has been on. He has never truly, until perhaps now in these past five weeks, felt like the club's No1 and when sporadic opportunity knocked previously, he was overwhelmed.
"The confidence problem is a very interesting subject in top-level sport," said the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, today. "You feel it goes quickly and comes back slowly. Of course, Fabianski's mistakes affected him."
It feels, however, as if Fabianski has turned a corner. Clanger-free in his six appearances this season, he was excellent in last weekend's pivotal 3-0 victory at Manchester City, winning plaudits, particularly from back home in Poland, where the media coverage was euphoric. "Fabianski is No1," the newspapers said. They even printed comments from Arsenal fan sites, which had saluted the death of 'Flappyhandski', another of the goalkeeper's unwanted soubriquets.
Fabianski is not the sort of player to make bold statements about what he intends to do but he has always believed in himself and felt that, given the right set of circumstances, he could establish himself as Arsenal's first-choice goalkeeper. Wenger will face a difficult decision when Almunia returns to fitness and he says it is a decision which cannot be hedged.
Turning up the heat further is the third-choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, another Pole from Legia, who emerged with honours from the midweek Carling Cup win at Newcastle United. The 20-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season but Wenger has offered him a new deal and is confident that he will sign.
"When everyone is available you have to make a choice because you cannot play in goal and feel that every mistake you make, you are out," Wenger said. "It is a little bit a special position on that front."
The Frenchman's words carry extra resonance as Arsenal prepare to welcome West Ham United and Robert Green, the goalkeeper who was dropped from the England team at the World Cup finals after his blunder in the opening match against the USA cost the team two points. Fabio Capello, the England manager, was criticised for going into the tournament without a clear No 1.
Wenger, though, appeared in no mood to nail his colours to the mast just yet. "The question will certainly be raised in Fabianski's mind; 'Will I continue to play when Almunia is fit?' But at the moment, certainly, he feels that he will play in the next game at least," Wenger said. "Even if he doesn't feel the No1, he feels that he will play in the next game.
"Fabianski has always felt that if he could get a run of games, he could show how good he was. He is what I call a natural goalkeeper; the rhythm of the game runs though his body. And on the pitch, I tell you, he is louder than you think."
Source: David Hytner, The Guardian on 29 Oct 10
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