Italian publication Il Mattino claims David Ospina will make a permanent move to Napoli when his loan deal ends this month.
Arsenal had negotiated an obligatory purchase clause in the event of the Colombian making 25 appearances for the Serie A last season.
In the end, he was fielded 24 times – leading to speculation that he wasn’t wanted at the San Paolo – but it appears Carlo Ancelotti has been impressed enough to consider as continued back up to Alex Meret.
The two clubs are now trying to thrash out a deal for the 30-year-old that may or may not match the previously mooted €3.5 million.
Ospina still has a year on his contract at the Emirates so even if this falls through, there’s a chance we could still get cash for him elsewhere. It’s usually about this time of year that he’s linked with a gazillion Turkish clubs.
Poor old Dave – his biggest crime is not looking like a Goalie. He had a great record for us – he is a moneyball keeper.
He’d be a great number two.
He wasn’t half as bad as people make out but he had a bad habit of forgetting where his line was and getting out muscles. Good number 2 for sure but we fucked up badly letting the big Pole go permanently.
Just to compare him to our direct rivals
Ospina Premier league Record – (over a few seasons)
Played 29 – Goals conceded 23 – Cleansheets 12 – Saves 77
Kepa Premier league Record – (over last season)
Played 34 – Coals Conceded 39 – Cleansheets 14 – Saves 81
Lloris Premier league Record – (over last season)
Played 33 – Coals Conceded 33 – Cleansheets 12 – Saves 101
Interesting statistics–Ospina conceded fewer goals but also faced fewer shots on target requiring saves. I can only conclude that our defenders were better. I think this is what is called (both in literature and in religion) a mystery.
Finally somebody talking about clean coal
Often made me nervous, and almost always this was not justified. Very good anticipation, off his line quickly, very good (but short) distribution, good on penalties (at least for Colombia). His brother-in-law would make an excellent replacement for Ramsey.
In my opinion he’s a really good keeper, but if he wanted a move away I would not blame him.
They want him, they just don’t seem to want him bad enough to pay actual money for him…
Whens the last time we got decent money for a player anyways mate… seems more important just to get wages off the book rather than selling players for profit.
Ox… and I don’t think we did too badly with Theo, considering how often he was injured.
But I take the point that that number is significantly lower than it should be.
Difficult to say we got the very best out of either deal as i’m personally of the opinion that the replacement must also be factored in and we can’t say we’ve got better as a result of either leaving.
Personally I don’t care who we sell as long as we become better as a result, i’m all for selling Aubameyang for instance to buy 2 proper wide men who’ll transform our team, I would be against selling him to buy a defender though as that seems a backward step
We never really replaced either Ox or Theo, hence why we have no natural wingers in the squad anymore.
I think they both went someways to paying for Aubameyang and rebalancing our squad at a time when we moved to the wingback system and we didn’t “need” wingers who couldn’t also (Theo) or at least didn’t want to (Ox) defend.
We fleeced Liverpool for the Ox and got as much for Theo as you’d could hope given he was in an Ozil-type situation; surplus to requirements and on big money
I don’t think we fleeced Liverpool for The Ox, i think it was about the going rate but as I said they weren’t replaced properly so on balance for us they were bad deals
Would be good to get off our books. But we may struggle to field a first 11 by the looks of players being linked away in the past 24 hours. Sounds like a solid 9 on the poometer about xhaka to inter, but auba there could be some heads turned due to the money. Something tells me we all might be ruing the day Usmanov didnt get a seat on the board. Being self sufficient is all well and good, but I love fucking trophies better and not seeing sp*rs in the champions league final even better. fucking hate kroenke… Read more »
We 100% need shot of Ozil, even if if means giving him a free. That would give us £75 million to reinvest in that position over the next 5 years, that’s a £50million transfer fee, and a £96,000 p/w 5 yr contract. Same with Mkhitaryan, even if we only got £10mill? That’s £54million we’d have to reinvest over the next 5 years, if his £170,000 p/w wages that have been reported are correct. If it was going to cost us £10mill a season to renew Ramsey? That’s another £50million over the next 5 years, that will be available to replace… Read more »
Thanks for the math, Rich. Kind of rare to have it neatly laid out like that in the comments.
General point taken – we shouldn’t be expecting transfer fees on a lot of these mental contracts.
But, out of curiosity, why have you projected Ozils contract out for 5 years, when transfermarkt has it ending in 2021?
Because if we keep Ozil for the remainder of his 2yr deal? He’s likely to leave for free anyway, and when he leaves, providing our revenue hasn’t decreased… then that money will move onto our books and become available for something else. So in giving him a free this summer, we just bring that decision forward 2 years, we move a player on who we’re no longer extracting any type of value out of, and we can then use those previously allocated funds to fund a younger and hungrier player over the next 5 year period of our overall revenue.… Read more »
Whilst the maths makes sense to offload those two I don’t think Ozil or Mkhitaryan are going anywhere to be honest and i think we’d be better off selling Aubameyang and Iwobi to reshape our attack as we’re more likely to get proper fees.
still halucinating!!!!!
I don’t know how many times you miss this point: we are bound to pay Ozil for the remainder of his contract unless he agrees otherwise. We can “give him a free” in the sense of not asking for a transfer fee–but he must still agree to go. We must–must–pay him the agreed wages if he chooses to stay at Arsenal.
No I completely get your point…. But….. if we make it perfectly clear to Ozil he’s not welcome, will no longer be considered for selection, and he is free to terminate his contract and find another club, then due to us not requiring any transfer fee, he’ll likely get similar wages elsewhere with a chunky signing on fee to boot. He could of course choose to hang around London doing just enough to ensure his cheques don’t bounce, but for brand Ozil it would be the ultimate humiliation. The board need to make it clear that Ozil has no chance… Read more »
Seriously, Özil has no shame. He doesn’t even turn up for away matches, he isn’t going anywhere unless we pay him off.
And that’s the point isn’t it, as much as we want Ozil and Mkhitaryan to go the savings won’t fund replacements, in fact it’ll probably cost us a substantial amount. The remainder of Ozil’s contract is worth about £36.5m and that doesn’t buy a replacement, neither does ridding ourselves of Mkhitaryan’s wages. Like it or not but our best way to fund purchases would be to accept that those two are staying and they’ll have to fight it out as our No.10 whilst either one of Lacazette or Auba will have to go. If you add in a sale of… Read more »
Why would we look to sell the leagues joined golden boot winner? Or our player of the season? Neither player are a problem right now, our problem is the lightweight, inconsistent and overpaid Ozil, and in some part Mkhitaryan, who I certainly believe we could sign a more suitable replacement at a reasonable price, and on much lower wages. Emery has publicly stated what he wants, and where our problem are. He was asking for wingers in January He’s twice stated that in the PL “technique without physicality doesn’t work’ And also made a few comments about investing heavily in… Read more »
We wouldn’t look to sell either of our strikers, it’s just being realistic. Ozil is on £350k a week, even if we give him away no ones paying him that. Realistically how much would the kind of team that’ll take him be able to pay him? Honestly i’d be surprised if they’d pay £100k a week, that means we’ll have to pay him £250k a week to play for someone else, that’s £25m over the remainder of his contract. That’s not good business and doesn’t make us better, same goes with Mhkytaryan. The mistake’s been made and now is the… Read more »
To Rich So you want to create a hostile environment for MO and HM? You want the other players to see this and play in this atmosphere? Which imaginary club is going to give ozil or HM that type of wage over the next 2 years min? That they would also want to play for? Freeing up wages doesn’t increase the transfer fund iirc. So getting no fee for them will only exacerbate the problems within the club this summer. Same thing with what has happened with Ramsey. His wage doesn’t effect the transfer fund it only makes it a… Read more »
Yes I think aggressively moving players on who we don’t want, will send the message that we no longer tolerate and reward players who aren’t performing….. I think it’s a fantastic idea that is long overdue at our club. Freeing up wages does increase our available funds, it’s basic accounting…. when you stop using money for something, providing your revenue hasn’t decreased? It then becomes available for something else. I don’t know what it would have cost us to keep Rambo in wages+signing on fees? But £12million a year over 4 yrs based on figures quoted, doesn’t seem too out… Read more »
I’m all for aggressively getting rid, but will it make us better?
No, and it doesn’t really release enough funds to replace them either, that’s exactly why they were given the contracts they were given, because it was cheaper than buying a replacement!
Rich – your maths are way off, because Ozil and Mkhi both only have two years left on their contracts. You seem to assuming that their current contacts will be extended until they are both 35!
We will pay them a joint £56 million before their contracts end (assuming they are on 350 and 190 a week).
Still significant if it’s moved off the wage bill, but way off the saving you are suggesting.
My maths are spot on… your just assuming that if Ozil+Mkhitaryan leave in 2 years when their contracts expire? That we’re going to keep paying them after they’ve left…. which would be insane
€3.5M? Wow. What a bargain. I.d be happy enough just to keep him if that is the best offer
Ospina has been available for a minimal price in modern terms & he himself has been looking to leave for 2 years…and yet no one wanted to buy him. So either the entire football world somehow lost heir minds and can’t see that this is an amazing bargain……….or he simply isn’t as good as many on here believe he is.
Just take the money & move on.
What the fuck does it mean to “thrash out” a deal haha
Toughest bloke I’ve seen take the pitch, the number of times he got knocked down and got up again puts a God awful song in your head.
I’m sure the club has a decent plan for a number 2 in place for next season.
He was our WWF wrestler. The stage antics when getting laid out were always entertaining. hahaha!
If they want it
they should put a ring on it.
We’ve been rubbish bringing in money these days.
Raul and Mslintat have been poor.
I’d just let him go.
You can’t even give away players like Elneny and Jenkinson. Too many players of no value hanging around.
His greatest mistake at Arsenal was not being taller and having a short neck, for what I could read everywhere. After that I admit sometimes he was a bit soft with his hands and his tendency to stay so on the line.
Or behind it.
Why the hell only 3.5 mil??? If someone like Keppa can cost 75 mil..if chelsea sold Petr cech to us for 10 mil at his age…this guy should also cost around that much as he is younger than when we bought cech and is actually a good keeper and the market inflation.