Understand David Raya has reached an agreement in principle with Arsenal on personal terms 🚨🔴⚪️ #AFC
Brentford have been informed by player side that he wants to join Arsenal — and talks between clubs over formula/price are now expected to accelerate.
https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1686427620001402891?t=XvmcWp4k2MbcaUxJI4m_tw&s=19
Huh okay. I guess the interest was genuine then.
Yeah, I was surprised by this too. I know our goalkeeping coach came from Brentford and is a massive fan of Raya, and we were sounding out a move for him a couple of seasons ago. And he definitely looks like a solid keeper.
But I thought we were all set with Ramsdale as #1 and Turner as his backup. But given some of his stats and recent performances, I can see why the coaching staff feel like Ramsdale needs more viable competition.
I’m interested on how this one turns out. Do we move Raya or Ramsdale on after a season or two? No way I would let Ramsdale go anywhere.
This is one of those situations where you put a stronger engine in your car to win the race, even though that engine will shake the car apart. The management team want to win even if it means by the end of the season that some players are sick of competing for their position.
I’ve been thinking about this one a lot over the past few days. The fact of the matter is, we want competition for places across all positions and while Turner was great at penalties, he was never going to push Ramsdale. Hopefully this forces Ramsdale to continue improving. Though he had a bloody fantastic season last season.
I wasn’t expecting this, but I’m happy we could potentially have 2 solid keepers. You are right and Turner wasn’t going to push Ramsdale and this would provide us solid cover for a vital position.
Yep, it’s a solid upgrade
Another excellent (albeit not yet confirmed) signing imo, what a summer it’s been.