Andre Onana is one of Arsenal’s summer transfer targets, but they look set to miss out on signing the banned Cameroonian.
Onana is currently serving a 12-month suspension for using banned substances, but his contract at Ajax is expiring and he will leave the Dutch club instead of signing a new one.
Having watched Bernd Leno struggle for form last season, Arsenal had been tipped to sign him.
He is one of the best goalkeepers in Europe and he was in goal as Ajax nearly reached the final of the Champions League in 2019.
The Gunners are facing competition from other European clubs and it seems they might miss out on his signature to one of them.
Todofichajes reports that Lyon is very serious about signing him and they have been in talks with his current club.
The report says the French club is close to an agreement and that it is expected to be concluded by the end of this month.
Arsenal has been linked with a move for Aaron Ramsdale in recent days, but Onana will cost less and he has more experience than the Sheffield United man.
Ramsdale is, however, younger and would probably serve them the longer.
We are really making a mess of the GK position. The chap who recommended we buy Runarsson for £3m or whatever is now being trusted with £30m for Ramsdale? The same chap who must have given the OK for us to let go of Martinez, and who may also be a reason that Leno isn’t going to renew his contract. We need someone better making our GK decisions rather than this saboteur.
Buy Onana for £5m approx, if it doesn’t work out sell him next year for a profit. If the club are desperate to sign an Englishman then Johnstone and Woodman are much more affordable and offer solid cover. If the club want PL quality for £30m I’d rather see us re-sign Martinez.
Stop this silliness, Ramsdale is overpriced and not good enough – we need top level experience, a commanding presence who can play out from the back and is strong when collecting crosses, saving penalties and can rely on great reach.
Leno is good but needs another top drawer option to keep him on his game, or even displace him so he knuckles down and works on his flaws and errors.
Every thing that I had in mind.
Absolute non-sense.
Ramsdale was with Bournemouth and Sheffield Utd and both teams got relegated from EPL. He is not good enough and £32 million are they having a joke£3 million you mean
The curse this summer seems to be not being able to offload players in positions in need of improvement: Bellerin, Laca, Leno, Willian, Xhaka (for decent money).
In the absence of strong demand for these players, we simply cannot improve these areas without ending up with a bloated squad. Something many fifa fans do not seem to appreciate.
I hope they go for Onana but Onana does not want to come apparently to be a backup keeper. This guy is very young for a keeper. He is not English and homegrown but if MA is in search of a homegrown, that would be a total joke as they sold emi, which was homegrown. So they should just sign Onana. This is a no brainer at this price. Plus he would fuel this African players tradition that we have (kanu, kolo Toure, Eboué, gervinho, Adebayor, partey) and makes us a loved club there. As far as i am concerned, Leno has not extended his contract. He is already on 100k a week. So what next ?! Will ransom us next summer or we will have to sell him if he shows reluctance to extend. If he likes arsenal (that trusted him and gave him back his 1st spot last year) and is extend now, fine. If it is to see him talk again and hesitate to extend next summer, the GK mess will continue. So i would just sign Onana which is a big bargain, but for this price (almost the price of runarsson LOL) we should give a try.
Can I float something which may be seen as somewhat out there, and a little controversial.
Emi Martinez was not “sold” by Arsenal per se.
Emi Martinez put to M A – “PLAY ME OR ELSE I AM GOING” – we all know this right.
His bluff was called !
We all know it seems Arteta is not a man to be dictated to (call it arrogance, stubbornness or a strong character trait in fact)
i.e.
” O.K. Emi, I have a No 1 in place, and can give you no assurances we will not stand in your way”.
I am a Leno man – however, has the above stance backfired big time ….. very possibly.
But again, it may well come down to
“whoever you are” (and remember Emi had made no previous significant breakthrough prior to Lenos’ injury) do not dictate to Mikel Arteta” – there will only be one winner.
Now for the counter argument.
For whatever reason was letting (who has turned out to be one of the leagues best keepers) go, in order to stamp your authority the right thing to do – a tough one.
The manager simply cannot have players knocking at his door handing him ultimatums re’ playing time.
The frustrating thing is how things have turned out (Leno noises), could Emi have buckled down and earned the No 1 shirt at our place – some would say he did, and this may well be justified.
MA is not someone to be dictated things… Why not… But he was “dictated” harsh conditions from Willian to come and accepted and kept playing him (playing a player because he costed more in place of better deserving ones). Being dictated conditions again from Auba (contract of 250k until 34 years old). He favoured Leno and let’s see what he will ask to renew !
Hi Johnze.
Let’s not confuse contractual demands, with demands re’ playing time.
I very much doubt whether M A would get overly involved with the contractual side of things – that’s down to Mr Garlick.
Yes, M A would however have a say (if he wanted a player badly enough) to bend over backwards contractually to get this one over the line, but I refer solely to players demanding assurances re’ selection – no can do.
I get you. I see. But still for me emi had won the right to stay in place. MA was a rookie manager and he did not handle well probably the guys. Or thought everyone would stupidly adhere to his words. But how can you send back emi to the bench after what he did. After waiting so long. He was 28 and was right to be hungry to play. Anyway, this story is ended and closed… he left and he brightly proved MA and his staff wrong. Let’s see if he will continue to show the same quality as he did in Copa America. Because if so, he might bee soon considered as a cult hero / amongst the best in the world.