Roma want to keep Arsenal loanee Wojciech Szczesny at the club beyond the remainder of the season, their director of football confirmed.

However Walter Sabatini confirmed that the Italian giants have plans prepared in the event that the Polish international returns to London.

Szczesny has continued to struggle with the same reliability problems at Roma that convinced Arsene Wenger to replace him with both David Ospina and Petr Cech over the past year.

At times, as in his obdurate display in a 2-1 victory over Serie A champions Juventus, the 25-year-old has appeared to be the outstanding goalkeeper that Wenger has frequently claimed he is. But then in a 3-2 defeat to BATE he found himself caught out by a 35-yard potshot whilst he stood some distance away from the centre of the goal.

The goalkeeper still retains the support of his current side though and Roma remain keen to keep hold of Szczesny, who would do battle with Ospina for the right to be Arsenal’s second fiddle should he return next season, for longer than their current loan deal.

Sabatini said: “We are working on it and would like to keep Szczesny, but knowing Arsenal it will be difficult to achieve that.

“In any case, Roma are already covered in that role for next season. Who did we get? I will never tell you that!”

On-loan @Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny denies Juventus an equaliser with a fine save at the death for Roma. http://t.co/VYErOhTb04 — BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) August 30, 2015

The other first-team goalkeepers in the Roma squad are 37-year-old Bogdan Lobont and 38-year-old Morgan de Sanctis, both of whose contracts expire in the summer.

Roma currently have Lukasz Skorupski on loan at Serie A rivals Empoli, where the keeper has kept three clean sheets in 12 league games.

Szczesny's form has not received universal praise in Italy, with European Cup winner Stefano Tacconi labelling him "an uncontrollable lunatic" last week.