Well, this has come as a bit of a surprise to me as I thought this deal was absolutely nailed on, and in fact I thought it would have been an excellent buy for Arsenal.
I am of course talking about the New England Revolution keeper Matt Turner, who has previously said that he would be keen to play in Europe one day, and I would have thought would have been over the moon to move to a massive club like Arsenal, albeit as backup keeper to Aaron Ramsdale.
But, now it appears the USA international is in two minds about whether to accept, because his country are set to appear at the World Cup in Qatar, and Turner is worried that he would lose any chance of representing his country if he is not playing first team football, even though the USA coach has told him that he would only be there as backup to Zack Steffen.
When asked about his possible transfer, Turner was quoted in HITC as saying: “It is true that there is interest (from Europe),”
“It all comes down to what is best for me. The World Cup is 10 months away, I want to make a smart decision. I feel good where I am now and how far I have come.
“But I would like to challenge myself one day.”
You can understand his point of view as I can’t see Ramsdale not playing (barring injury of course), which would make it even more unlikely he would be playing in Qatar.
But this also could give Arteta and Leno a big problem, as it looks like the German was very keen to move to Newcastle this month, which would have given Arteta some extra funds to play with.
With just 5 days left in the transfer window, Arteta will find it hard to find an alternative to replace Leno if Turner turns down this opportunity…