David Raya has told Brentford that he wants to quit the club and join Arsenal this summer.
The 24 year-old has been left out of the club’s final friendly before the start of the Championship campaign this weekend, and was subsequently left out of the squad for the EFL Cup first round this weekend also.
This has led to increased speculation surrounding his future, with Arsenal strongly linked with his signature.
The Gunners however are not sure if they are in the market for a goalkeeper at present, with Emiliano Martinez an Bernd Leno both currently signed with the club.
The former is seeking guarantees over his playing time at present, and with the Argentine having been given the nod for the Community Shield win against Liverpool, he could well be persuaded to stay with the club going into the new season.
Raya may be under the illusion that Arsenal are renowned to losing Emi however given the interest shown in him, and the Telegraph reporter Sam Dean claims that the player has told his club that he wants to move to the Emirates.
Emi will not be short of potential suitors should he decide to move on, with Aston Villa believed to be heading the chase, given Tom Heaton is already expected to miss the start of the new campaign. The Athletic claims that they have already lodged a second bid for his signature.
Could we still persuade Emi to stay on at the club despite the challenge that Bernd Leno represents in the race for minutes?
Patrick
Emi/Bernd is the kind of selection problem to have.
Torn about losing either. Many prefer Emi (I do too actually)– but recall that Bernd was playing behind a shaky defense– that tightened up considerably late in the season– in front of Emi.
Can Mikel balance the use of both– to satisfy both?
Oh. Right. This post was about David Raya… 🙃
Arteta has to make the decision, who is Arsenal s number 1 ?? i believe he think Leno is and for that reason he should be fair and say to Emi you can move to get regular football of course we would love to have you here but i cannot offer you regular first team football….its only fair !!
Why are we getting rid of our best keeper? Will be shocked and disappointed if we let Emi go.
This is just about the same syndrome hindering the progress of this club. We will sell at ridiculous price and buy at outrageous value.
Now we are about to do our “usual madness” again. We sold Sczesny for peanut only to buy Leno expensively.
Emi Martinez is to be solid for less than £20m and a keeper who couldn’t be rated with better performance this season, Kepa was bought for over £70m
AFC have a lot to learn on how to trade players and make reasonable money.