An FC Barcelona first team star gave a brutally honest opinion about his lack of minutes this season during an interview with Eleven Sports.
Former Arsenal and Juventus shotstopper Wojciech Szczesny managed to come out of retirement and sign a one season contract with the Catalans after they took advantage of a loophole opened up by usual number one goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen's season-ending injury in late September.
On the eve of Barca playing its last game of 2024 against title race rivals Atletico Madrid on Saturday, the Pole has yet to earn a single minute between the sticks but made it clear that he "100% agrees" with head coach Hansi Flick's decision to keep trusting Inaki Pena.
"I don't know when I will make my debut. From the beginning I said that first I had to do was get in shape. That was the most important thing. Now I feel fully prepared to play, both physically and mentally," Szczesny stressed to Eleven Sports.
"I admit that if I were the coach of this club, I would have played exactly as many games as I have played so far," he further confessed, ahead of offering support to Pena amid recent poor results which have included shock home losses to Las Palmas and Leganes.
"When the team was going through a difficult time and the media wanted to put pressure on, I was the first to say that Inaki Pena deserves all the confidence."
As for the slump Barca is in, the Pole believes "it's normal".
"It's a consequence of youth and their lack of experience. I was also young and I know how difficult it is to go from playing in the best European stadiums in the Champions League to playing against smaller teams in La Liga. But this is the path that the athlete must go through if he wants to win trophies. It's a mental issue, you have to find the balance and be able to face every game," Szczesny explained.
Revealing that his family is "very happy" in Catalonia, and that they are the "main reason I decided to make this move", the veteran didn't hesitate to name his favourite moment in Blaugrana thus far.
"It was an exceptional experience and it made me smile a lot. Maybe I even exaggerated my joy a little after the game," he said about the 4-0 drubbing of Real Madrid in El Clasico, where Szczesny was even caught smoking in the Bernabeu locker room during post-match celebrations.