Brentford’s Spanish footballer David Raya is on the brink of undergoing a medical examination at Arsenal this week, as a substantial £30 million transfer agreement has been reached with Brentford, according to the respected transfer guru Fabrizio Romano.
Raya’s potential move to North London has been a recurring topic recently, and formal negotiations between Arsenal and Brentford were initiated the previous week. Romano has revealed that the two parties have now found common ground, with Arsenal committing to a £30 million fee encompassing additional performance-related bonuses in exchange for the 27-year-old’s services.
David Raya will complete medical tests as new Arsenal player in 24/48h — as documents are being prepared 🔴⚪️
Deal sealed earlier this afternoon, it’s done.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 8, 2023
Having already settled on the terms of his personal contract, Raya is poised to undergo a medical assessment this week. Both clubs are diligently preparing the necessary paperwork to finalize the transaction. Raya, renowned for his adept ball-handling skills, is anticipated to sign a five-year contract extension until 2028, coupled with an optional additional year.
Previously, Arsenal’s initial offer of £23 million had been rejected by Brentford. However, a breakthrough has finally been achieved between the two sides. Raya had been previously linked to potential transfers to Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich.
However, both clubs eventually withdrew their interest. Tottenham secured Guglielmo Vicario from Empoli, while Bayern Munich continues to search for a goalkeeper.
The momentum of Raya’s transfer gained impetus following Arsenal’s parallel agreement with Nottingham Forest for the transfer of Matt Turner. Turner had served as a backup goalkeeper to Aaron Ramsdale during the last season but Arteta never seemed to be convinced of his talent.
BREAKING! Nottingham Forest announce the signing of Matt Turner from Arsenal in a deal worth £10m. ✍️🔴 pic.twitter.com/683fco91Pj
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) August 9, 2023
Jack Anderson
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This ‘could’ be a real game-changer for us. Ramsdale is a good shot-stopper but fills me with dread every time he has the ball at his feet. Raya is better at almost every aspect of the game and is only 27.
I believe he’ll play in cup competitions and Ramsdale will handle EPL. Now we can ship a homegrown player out
Are you sure he will play in cup games alone? Rteta was ruthless enough to replace Leno with Ramsdale despite been a good keeper then. I think we shall see Raya play in some Epl games if Ramsdale slip. It’s good to have two good keepers considering UCL and other cup games
That’s just my prediction
I don’t see Raya joining from being number one at Brentford to being number 2 at Arsenal. Especially at £30m. Raya will be coming in to challenge Ramsdale imo. I don’t think he will start for us initially but maybe 5 to 8 games in he will get a chance. That’s my prediction.
We are not buying Raya to sit on the bench for League matches.Ramsdale will have to be more consistent and less error prone if he is to retain the number one berth.The Spaniard is an excellent shotstopper and very comfortable as the extra defender with the ball at his feet.Like Ramsdale however he is not a commanding presence at set pieces ,but to be fair to him,one of the strengths of Brentford is their aerial ability of their back three, which at times has made Raya seem redundant.With Rice and Havertz on board to assist Saliba and Gabriel we should be able to cope with high balls into our box ,particularly from corner kicks.
Let’s see what will happen, but Ramsdale would likely play in our first two EPL matches ahead of Ray
We could already have sold an association-trained player had we wanted to as we already had:
Ramsdale
White
Holding
Rice
Saliba
Smith-Rowe
Saka
Martinelli
Nelson
Nketiah
Balogun
We could have sold 3 of those without any issues. It only means that now we could sell up to 4.
I don’t think you’re right. I think he is coming in to be No.1. I don’t see any point in buying in a better goalie just to replace Turner. He wasn’t that bad that it warrants it.
The arrival of Raya is certain to make us see the ultimate best of Ramsdale
We seems to have a thing buying keepers for £30 mill, Brentford seems to have twisted our hands for the goalie in the last year of his contract.
They rejected 45 million from Totheanam.
News from inside Arsenal is that Matt Turner has been sold to Notts Forest for £10 million plus addons in a four year deal. This includes a buy back clause for £18 million that becomes effective after two years should Forest agree to sell. The Raya fee after addons of £30 million will be spread over two years should the payment terms become agreed.
Turns out it’s a loan with an option to buy
I think this will transfer will be made in his faith wrt ramsdale. I can’t see us binning him after one year, a relatively successful year, at that.
Arteta clearly likes raya, as he tried to sign him a couple of years ago – I think he sees the ability of our gk to pass out from the back as being absolutely crucial to how we play, so we must have two gks who can do it. Turner is a quality gk in general, but he’s just your average gk when it comes to playing with his feet – that’s the only reason he hasn’t played more and therefore the only reason he’s leaving.
It will be a challenge to keep them both happy, but arteta simply must achieve that – otherwise we’ll just be shopping again in a year’s time. I can only think he’ll play them in different competitions for the most part, and rotate a bit during the season according to form and fitness.
Raya is top notch but his short passing is relatively bad, hope he improves
I for one really can’t see what the issue is with some fans. Turner wants first team football which we can’t give him so wants to leave. In addition he was not good enough to threaten Ramsdale, and IMO Ramsdale’s worst moments are when he is NOT under pressure. Raya is a class act and is definately not here as a number two. He may well displace Rambo – we will see. Keepers should compete for their place like every other player and we need to move away from this daft belief that we can’t risk upsetting players by reinforcing their position. As with our fans’ reluctance to sell players until they are well past their peak and our rose-tinted loyalty to academy products, it’s time to realise that sentimentality and success rarely go hand in hand.
This si a very good move for me. Turner was very unconvincing in the Europa League games he played in last season. It would have been suicidal to rely on him for our Champions League adventure this season.
According to David Onstein it’s a loan @£3mil with an option to buy for 27mil, good business for Arsenal
I’ve seen it too, even The Athletic are reporting it, but it makes no sense. He’s out of contract next summer so would be able to arrange his own deal with Arsenal from May to move on a free, so why on Earth would Arsenal choose to pay £27million?
Now I see, he’s signing an extension with Brentford before the loan. Would be a very good solution for everyone and Areteta and Edu deserve a lot of praise if they manages to get it done.
Because Raya, if it happens, will sign an extra years contract with Brentford before. Its all a bit strange but it helps Arsenal massively as far as financially.
This is a great negociation by edu considering Brenford rejected a 30m bid from Tott and a loan with option to buy from Bayern earlier in the window.
This is really good business. I think another major signing seems to be on card it seems, with Raya coming on a loan and freeing up about 27 mil. Maybe a striker to fill up for Jesus?