Afternoon guys.

I’ve nicked this from James McNicholas of The Athletic who writes:

Arsenal’s goalkeeping department is in the midst of an overhaul. If all goes to plan, they will complete the signing of three first-team goalkeepers in this transfer window. Beyond that, they are hoping to make multiple additions at academy level.

The goalkeeping position is one usually associated with stability and longevity. At Arsenal, however, barely a window goes by without considerable focus on this area.

It’s true isn’t it, since Mikel Arteta walked through the Arsenal doors with his managerial hat on, the club has seen a flurry of changes in the goalkeeping department. Bernd Leno, gone, Emi Martinez, gone, Arthur Okonkwo, gone. Alex Runarsson was signed but he’s gone, Matt Turner didn’t hang around for long either and now it seems Aaron Ramsdale could be on his way out too although that is just speculation right now, fuelled by his comments about not wanting another season of not playing. With David Raya well established as Arsenal’s number one, Ramsdale faces another season on the bench if he can’t find another club.

As McNicholas goes onto write – Ramsdale moving on is not a formality as he is on a good contract and Arsenal expect to recoup a fee in the region of the £30m they paid for him. There are only a select few clubs in Europe who could meet those financial demands and most of them have first-team goalkeepers.

23-year-old Spaniard Joan Garcia is a name mentioned to replace Ramsdale should he leave and he’ll cost €25 million. The idea says McNicholas, is for David Raya and Joan Garcia to be supported by Dan Bentley of Wolves who made five league appearances last season. Bentley has worked with Cana, our keeper coach before which I’m not sure is a positive or negative thing.

The article also suggests that Arsenal are changing things up with their academy goalkeepers after Ovie Ejeheri, James Hillson and as already mentioned, Arthur Okonkwo were all released this summer. One replacement could be Ajax’s 18-year-old Englishman Tommy Setford. Arsenal have begun talks with Ajax about their intention to sign the England Under-20 international so he could join already signed 18-year-old Denmark youth international Lucas Nygaard.

Should Arsenal get their goalkeeper targets through the door this summer, I hope that’s the end of our seemingly revolving door in that department. Raya is likely to be number one for the foreseeable, certainly as long as Mikel Arteta remains at the club but then I thought that about Aaron Ramsdale just a year ago too.

Catch up in the comments..

 

 

 

Discover more from Highbury House

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading