Matt Turner leaves the World Cup, but should he leave Arsenal as well?

Of all Arsenal’s players at the World Cup, the only one that was knocked out of the Group Stages was our Ghana international Thomas Partey (obviously we can’t include Ben White as he left due to “personal circumstances”), although Brazil also lost Gabriel Jesus to injury.

But the first round of the knockout stages yesterday saw the USA lose to Holland, with Arsenal’s Matt Turner conceding his first goals from open play and send him and his team-mates on the plane home.

Turner earned many plaudits from his performances in the four matches for USA, (the same amount as he has played for Arsenal this season) and there have been murmurs that he should have now earned the right to be playing every week in one of the big Leagues, if he cannot supplant Aaron Ramsdale at Arsenal.

The ex-USMT coach Bruce Arena think that Turner should now be considering his options. “Matt can’t be at fault for the three goals against and made several great saves in the second half to keep the US alive in the game. Like the team, this was the first time he was truly tested at the World Cup,” he told MLS Soccer.

“Now, Matt’s going to fall in line with the likes of Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller one day. He has to move out of Arsenal to start playing on a regular basis, but he’s proven himself to be a very good goalkeeper for the US.”

The Arsenal lads get together after England and USA draw.

It’s hard not to admit that Arena has a point, as, for the rest of the season, Turner is only likely to play in Arsenal’s Europa League games, and maybe the FA Cup) until the end of this campaign unless Ramsdale comes down with an injury.

Arsenal have a few up-and-coming young keepers coming through now, Like Karl Hein and Arthur Okonkwo, so maybe Arsenal could cash in on Turner next summer and promote one of our youngsters that won’t mind being on the bench, for now…

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14 Comments

  1. Not for now. But it’s good he’s playing well and possibly getting his value increased.

    We have young Estonian international Hein coming up so if things go well, he could step up to challenge Ramsdale in thr near future.

      1. TWO POINTS Pat. Firstly Alzheiners is not a flipp[ant matter and I do not condone your attempts to make light of this cruel disease. I think many otherd will privately agree with me but perhaps choose not to be as outspoken as I am.

        Secondly, a piece about Turner needing to leave us shows how desperate your site is for ANYTHING Arsenal related to actually happen.

        Every Gooner , yourself included, knows it is a nonsense that is not remotely on the cards. Sigh!

        1. POINT ONE – I’m NOT being flippant or joking

          POINT TWO – It’s the ex-USA coach that suggests Turner should leave. QUOTE “He has to move out of Arsenal to start playing on a regular basis” UNQUOTE

          My POINT Jon – Every article, whatever it is about, gives you another chance to insult me or my writers. Keep it up!

          1. Pat, you may be sure I WILL continue to call out non articles such as this one, when they spout nonsense. So what if it is an ex USA coach, as he has nothing to do wth our clubwhatsoever.

            And your QUOTE” Alkheimers probably,” with an exclamation mark, WAS , AS YOU WELL KNOW, intended to be flippant. No one believes an obviously false denial!

  2. Playing in the big *leagues* is not the same as playing in a big *club*.

    As a certain Mr Leno will know, you can play every day for Fulham but it’s not so easy to start every match for Arsenal.

    Matt Turner is 28, he’s virtually guaranteed to start for the USA, so he has nothing to lose by competing at Arsenal and waiting for his chance.

    The other thing is that there’s more chance to play – Arsenmal are likely to go deep in 3 domestic competitions and a European one, whereas Fulham may be in only the league from a fairly early stage.

    Of course, none of us knows how Turner himself views all this – and in the end, that’s all that matters.

    1. Well, Arteta deserves a lot of praise, but making the players compete for the starting position is definitely not in his offering. That is why it’s not making sense to spend big money on a winger or midfielder, as – unless we get ahold of Milinkovic-Savic – we are buying for the bench.

  3. If we get a good offer for him in January or in the summer, better sell him when his price tag is still very high

    I liked his distribution and ball catching skills, which might be slightly better than Ramsdale’s. But we need the money to sign new players and Okonkwo/ Hein can compete with each other to be the second-choice GK at Arsenal

  4. My first impression of Turner proved to be wrong as he is a very good keeper who will provide real competition for Ramsdale.In fact, by the end of the season he may just be Arteta’s first choice ?

    1. Yes, he had a shaky start in Germany pre-season but it seems that was just a touch of stage fright.

      Of course, it’s worth remembering that such frailties can re-emerge at awkward moments – like the Liverpool keeper in the CL final.

  5. The other factor in this is the marketing/PR angle.

    The pre-season tours these days tend to be either USA or Asia for a reason – there’s a large untapped market there and not many clubs that are very good (and not many competitions that many people follow outside their own country).

    Turner and Tomi are very good players to have on your books, not only because they’re very good players in their own right, but the advantage of having people in the US and Japan interested in your club cannot be under-estimated since in the end, these days Arsenal is a business owned by an American.

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