Aitor Fernandez has admitted that he could have joined Arsenal this summer, but he chose to stay with current club Levante instead.
The Gunners allowed goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to leave the club and join Aston Villa after the Community shield, having refused to convince the Argentine that he was guaranteed to start the campaign ahead of Bernd Leno.
That decision has come under the spotlight, with Emi continuing on from his impressive end to last season with a string of top performances for his new club, while the Gunners opted to bring Alex Runarsson in as his replacement.
The Icelandic international has been selected to feature in just the one competitive match thus far, keeping a clean sheet against Dundalk, but he wasn’t the only goalkeeper targeted this summer.
Levante shot-stopper Fernandez has revealed that he was the subject of interest from Arsenal, but both he and his club had no intention of negotiating.
“It is clear that there were many things. But in the end the club gave me calmness that they wanted me to stay here and I wanted to stay here”, Fernandez told Spanish daily AS (as translated by InsideFutbol).
He was then asked if the interest was from Arsenal and Athletic Bilbao.
“Yes, it is true there were contacts”, the 29-year-old answered.
“There were quite a few clubs that asked and it is true that those two are true, but here I am very happy, I am and I hope to be.”
Was Runarsson a back-up option? Could Fernandez have been a better option to replace Martinez?
Patrick
