David Ospina is wanted by Besiktas this summer, but the Turkish side are reportedly set to take their interest elsewhere, dismayed at how much Arsenal want for their number 2 goalkeeper.
The Colombian international has been in sparkling form in the Copa America this summer, and that will certainly mean the transfer fee required for Arsene Wenger to part company with a player he likes will be increased.
Arsenal paid Nice around £4m for Ospina in the summer of 2014, and with two years remaining on his contract he’s not going to be cheap.
Besiktas president Fikret Orman says that they’re ready to move on, having been discouraged by the high price, but reiterated his admiration of the 27 year old.
“Arsenal want a lot for him so we may have to look for alternatives,” he said. “I do want Ospina and we are going to get a foreign keeper.”
It does sound as if Arsenal are willing to let him go should someone meet the asking price, but we’ll have to see what kind of decision the Arsenal manager makes about his goalkeeping options next season.
If you want a good player, you’ve gotta pay for a good player. If they thought he was going to be 4M again they had another thing coming.
Interested to see who you’d rather keep, upvote for Ospina downvote for Szczesney
I feel bad for Ospina, I genuinely think all that’s preventing him from truly cutting it in England is his height/reach. Where ever he ends up I hope he gets the playing time he deserves, he’s been more important to AFC than most will give him credit for.
I think Ospina would be fine in England. But I can’t imagine Arsene Wenger would let him go to, say, Liverpool. I mean, no sane top Premier League club would allow a world-class keeper to join a rival.
He’s proven himself to be one of, if not the, very best goalkeepers from the Americas. He earned a nomination for the Ballon d’Or and he’s proven himself a match winner for his country at the centenario Copa. We’ve every right to hold out for a higher price even if he’s our #2 because he’s clearly good and he’s pretty young as far as keepers go. They better pay up or someone else will, Ospina won’t be short of suitors this summer that’s for sure.
Why are goalkeepers priced so low? Even when we paid £11m(ish) for Petr Cech people acted like we’d spent ‘big money’ on him – it doesn’t seem like much, to me.
Juventus paid about £35m for Gigi Buffon back in 1999 or so, so it’s not like they’ve increase in value at the same rate as outfield players.
Surely Ospina’s easily worth more at least £5m? I think that much is a bargain for him.
I don’t get it.
Buffon is very much the exception, no other ‘keeper has cost close to that, and generally further back in the field costs are lower. Rightly or wrongly centre forwards and attacking midfielders make the the headlines and command the large fees (and probably higher wages too)
Buffon is one of the best goalkeepers in the history of the game, and seems to be pretty much immortal. As poly said above, very much the exception to the rule
He’d be wasting his time going to play for Besiktas anyway, he’s better than that.
Ffs he is a top international keeper with years left at the top? What did they expect to pay? 3 twinkies and a popsicle? It always feels like clubs think they can get our players on the cheap perhaps due to our class. Good to see we are holding firm.
Besiktas does this every time with every player. It’s all a PR thing. That bit at the end about “buying a foreign keeper” – who cares if they’re foreign, shouldn’t what matter be if they’re good? It’s like the middle-aged idiot who buys a mustang to feel young again.
I read somewhere they were offering 3 million for him. For an international goalkeeper, in good form is a joke. Yes he’s not our 1st choice, buts he’s in his prime for a keeper. Come back with 10 million and we’ll start to talk.
Love him, hope he stays.
But if we have to sell him, it should be £10-12 mil especially after his Copa exploits.
One of Szsc or Ospina may get sold. There simply isn’t room for both and Cech.
BOth Ospina and Szsc have their own attributes.
Ospina is a good shot stopper/reaction keeper, less commanding with crosses. Szsc probably better showing presence in the box.
They can both get better.
Difficult decision.
Personally I think Szcz has a better chance of becoming a bona-fide “world class” keeper, so he would be my preference. Question is, is he prepared to understudy Cech for a few more years after having been first choice at both Roma and Arsenal in the past…
Why the hell would we sell him, he’s way better than Shez. For too long we’ve had shit keepers and lost out because of it. Now we have two excellent keepers in Cech and Ospina. Why would we run the risk of putting ourselves in trouble if Cech gets injured. Ospina to stay
Because Ospina is an established keeper @ club and international level.
At his level he really should be a first teamer.
Obviously Cech is one of the greats still playing so its a unique, but difficult situation, can’t think of many others.
So it stands to reason that Ospina may want to go elsewhere in search of first team action.
I’d love for Ospina to stay and Sczeszney to go on loan to another team, doesn’t have to be Roma.
I’ve not seen him banging on for a move anywhere though, it just seems to be assumed that he wants to leave. If either he or SZCZ must be number 2 next season, I know who we’re more likely to hear complaints and disruption from and it’s not Ospina. On top of that he’s statistically the far better keeper too. I’d straight up refuse to sell and by the time his contract is up, Cech might not be the same player and Ospina could be first choice.
What I hear is we’re holding out for an extra quid…
I really like Ospina, but he’s too good to be #2, I hope a top club snaps him up and we get a good return. Szczesny should learn a thing or two from Cech and then we can talk first choice at Arsenal.
I’d rather sell Szczesny. Cech has been making mistakes lately and I can see Ospina eventually being number one. Last year there was a load of talk about him leaving to play more and when he did eventually speak he said his intention was to stay and fulfil his contract “at least”. He seems the sort of person who’ll bide his time and become number one, he did it with Szcz and I’d back him to do it with Cech too. Also Szcz hasn’t exactly been diplomatic with his comments about the training staff.
I don’t understand people saying he’s too good to be a number 2. So what! Be selfish for Arsenal. You wouldn’t turn down a world class striker and a second striker who was also world class would you? Ospina to stay