Morning.
A really fast Sunday weblog. It appears just like the Kepa deal goes to occur after David Ornstein posted about it yesterday (£), and in the identical article James says the participant is ‘prepared to combat for his place’, however a part of our curiosity is because of the reality he has been a strong understudy beforehand at Chelsea and Actual Madrid.
It’s, I suppose, a bit unusual that the world’s most costly goalkeeper goes to come back to Arsenal to primarily be the quantity 2 to David Raya, but it surely additionally reveals how large cash transfers are precarious issues. So usually you hear about how a membership spending large on a participant is a present of ambition, they’ve actually put their cash the place their mouth is and so on and so on. However perhaps it’s simply an illustration of how timing, market forces, the atmosphere into which that participant arrives, and maybe a superb dollop of hubris and/or stupidity play a significant half in transfers and the charges paid (and perhaps some under-the-table stuff that doesn’t get talked about as a lot because it ought to).
We’ve been there, carried out that, and worn the t-shirt within the form of Nicolas Pepe within the not too distant previous. A signing that had everybody so excited in the summertime of 2019, however in the end we purchased a participant that Unai Emery didn’t need, and who turned out to not be to the style of Mikel Arteta when he took over both. One stellar season in France catapulted his worth into the stratosphere, we stumped up the large lump of money, and whereas I feel he did extra in his time at Arsenal than individuals keep in mind, it will possibly’t actually be seen as something aside from a little bit of a flop all issues thought-about.
Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday, I feel Kepa for £5m is a superbly cromulent method to offer back-up for David Raya subsequent season and past. And hopefully it’s a transfer that provides us just a little stability for a few seasons a minimum of. It appears like there’s been a lot goalkeeping drama in the previous couple of years. From the Emi Martinez emergence in 2020 and his subsequent sale to Villa; the preliminary ‘Him?!’ after we had been linked to Aaron Ramsdale; then him displacing Bernd Leno immediately leaving a giant cash buy on the bench who we offered for a pittance; Ramsdale firmly establishing himself and turning into a preferred member of the squad, then we introduced in Raya and he instantly got here into the workforce on the Englishman’s expense; Arteta’s feedback about how vital it was to have two nice keepers when he solely ever supposed to play one among them, and all of the related drama e.g TV slicing to Ramsdale on the bench any time Raya did something; final summer season’s pursuit of Joan Garcia the place we had been led up the backyard path, leaving us desperately scrabbling to discover a late back-up in addition to a brand new membership for Ramsdale which all occurred on the final minute and left us with a quantity 2 goalkeeper the supervisor mainly had no religion in.
And that’s with out even mentioning Alex Runarsson. So, let’s hope that these in control of goalkeeping points at Arsenal are completely satisfied – or a minimum of sufficiently content material – with two gamers of their prime years, a pair of Spanish internationals too to allow them to do the Spanish bantz collectively on the coaching floor, and everybody can simply calm down for a bit and allow us to think about checking out different areas of the pitch. Appears affordable.
Till …
Proper, that’s it for at present. Have a enjoyable Sunday.
