It’s being reported this afternoon that Arsenal and Brentford have agreed a deal for the transfer of David Raya.
The Gunners have been linked with the Barcelona born keeper for some time, but intensified their pursuit after Matt Turner became a target for Nottingham Forest.
A total fee of around £30m has been cited, an amount that would include all add-ons and clauses, similar to the £10m Arsenal can expect for Turner if all the conditions to his deal are met. That would leave a net £20m for Raya, a good fee for a keeper of his calibre.
It would change the dynamic at Arsenal, going from an established number 1 with an obvious number 2, to two keepers capable of starting in the Premier League and Champions League.
It’s going to mean a real fight between incumbent Aaron Ramsdale and the new man, but the England international sounded up for it when he spoke to ITV ahead of the Community Shield this weekend.
When asked about the possible arrival of Raya, he said, “Bring it on. Nothing comes easy in football. But also at the same time you need to move along and adapt as well.
“I’ve done it to other people when I’ve moved to clubs. I’m not going to be thinking that it’s never going to happen to me.
“So, yeah, I think if it happens, it happens and then we’ll fight and we’ll make each other the best version of ourselves because that’s what the manager is telling us as well.
“I’m sure whoever plays, me, Matt, whoever comes in, the goalkeeping union … people will laugh at but it’s a real thing … and your individual disappointment will go away and you’ll put the team first and you’ll put that goalkeeper first as well.”
Can’t fault that attitude, and let’s hope the team is the main beneficiary of this increased competition as two good goalkeepers make each other better.
Probably the end of Runnarson then.
Cracked up, thank you.
That’s why mums don’t buy goalkeepers from Iceland.
Not paying his dues to the keepers union
🤣 hilarious! Mikel’s beginning to scare me with his cold-blooded ruthlessness……takes no prisoners…stuff of champions hopefully.
It’s freaking great. Gone are the days of signing guys as backups – as it should be. All that ever does is create squad complacency. Rammers is bloody great and it’s pretty clear that Raya is quality (hence our interest, but also his statistical profile is excellent). I’d expect Rammers to start as the EPL goalie and Raya as the cup/champs league goalie. Rammers needs to be on his toes to remain as the true #1 of the team and that is what we want. It’s what we wanted with Turner, but never really got due to his relatively poor… Read more »
Do we really want a Champions League goalie? Surely that is your undisputed number 1..? Raya gets dead rubber group games, FA Cup, and League Cup in my mind.
I think it’s pretty clear we want two top class goalies. Raya is dam good. He could possibly work house way into top choice.
Raya is a a quality keeper, no question. I’ve been to quite a few Brentford matches with a mate who supports them and he rarely needs to punch the ball away. Always seems to catch the ball really well and claims well from crosses. Probably a better shotstopper than Rambo but will maybe have to learn a few skills (sweeping) to satisfy Mikel.
Statistically, I think the thing that impresses perhaps under-the-radar is his decision making with the ball. He can play long or short and is exceptional at both – when teams press the play out from the back he can pick out players up-field (most passes by a GK last season). Rammers is great at this too, but Raya is arguably the best in the league right up there with Emerson and Allison with the ball at his feet. Contrary to what you say on sweeper actions he’s really good in this area. 1.46 sweeper actions by GK per 90 (outside… Read more »
Arteta killed him.
I don’t see the need for this signing BUT then again I didn’t see the need for Ramsdale too so I’ll trust the process.
Raya is versatile. He can also play left back.
Good back up for Zinny, Timber, Tomi and KT….
Also back up to Arteta if he loses his voice and needs someone with a Spanish accent for team talks etc…
Yeah but could he do a job for us up top when needed?
You mean an inverted false 9 in a bi-lateral rubicon formation?
Inverted left back, you mean.
Funniest thing today
it might be a bit mad, but has any club with two top keepers, each capible of being a number one, ever experimented with having a rotation / alternate match system. Rather than league/cup keeper (tho it would end up being a bit like that in the league/cup cycle) there can be some simple system of playing alternate games even in periods where there are no cup games. Keep both keepers sharp, so they are match ready should one get injured. I don’t know how disruptive it would be to the relationship with defenders. I’d suspect if they were playing… Read more »
Its not too far fetched, for example, Raya is a better distributer and aaron is a better shot stopper and claimer of the ball. In games we dominate Raya could be crucial, in games where physically the opponent will try over power us, aaron could be crucial
I don’t think Ramsdale is a better shot stopper/ball claimer. in 2022/23: Rammers vs Raya (based on percentiles 100%ile being without peer; 0%ile being the worst) save%: only 36 vs 94, PSxG-GA (factors in xG of the shot vs goals against): 38 vs 89 Crosses stopped: 43 vs 92 GK sweeper actions: 61 vs 82 Touches: 12 vs 94 In terms of passing: Ramsdale: 539/852 (63%) with 33.3% of those passes launched Raya: 818/1340 (61%) with 50.7% of those passes launched Statistically, it’s really tough to argue Ramsdale is the better GK. And don’t get me wrong, I love Rammers,… Read more »
Raya will play cup games for now and aaron play EPL/ UCL. If mentally Aaron dips, Raya steps in and vice versa. last 10 games last season, Aaron form dipped heavy, conceded many sloppy goals. After his story he clearly was not up to it mentally, with Raya he could take a break. besides when it comes to business end the first 11 feel so much pressure, its good to have a back up who is just as good
If Ramsdale picks up an injury there’s a large drop in quality to what we have in reserve. We had one first team GK and a number of reserves. We will now have two first team GK’s. Depth is one of the final remaining pieces of the jigsaw, this is a smart signing in my opinion.
If Arteta wants him, I want him. I see no reason to doubt the man that wanted to spend £80m on Mudryk.
I see no reason to doubt the man who didn’t concede to the crazy demands to land Mudryk and bought Trossard instead
Mudryk in the hands of Arteta would have been something else. The coach, the structure of the team, and environment of the team matter sometimes. Put Mudryk in this Arsenal team and you see a transformation of the player.
Good business. Ramsdale won’t play EVERY game and as much as I liked Turner, we don’t have the time to develop his feet.
So…
We’ve got 2 of the top 5 CB’s in the prem
2 of the top 5 CM’s
2 of the top 5 wingers
2 of the top 5 FB’s
And 2 of the top 5 goalkeepers?!
I’m an Arsenal fan, and even I’m getting scared.
Welcome to Arsenal David!
What’s wrong with his feet?
Just like transfers, Arteta keeps his players feet close to his chest.
I like Ramsdale more and more each day. Can’t see this as anything but good news. We have a lot of matches to play this season.
I’m in the “Don’t Spend Big on a No 2 Goalie” camp. Man City, Liverpool, etc, etc. Unless of course Raya is the new No 1, which again feels wrong as Ramsdale is very good and imho, will only get better. Really not convinced about this part of the process. (Although I could be persuaded if we get £20m for Runarsson and it all balances out.)
I agree, I don’t like spending this much on a second keeper. Either of these guys could be #1 and the other one will be upset when he doesn’t play. And with goalkeepers trust is a thing, and it could be to the detriment of performance if you think you make one mistake you’re out of the team.
Totally agree. Big Shaka Hislop said same thing on espn at the weekend. Happened to him at Newcastle and all it meant was he played within himself scared of making a mistake and being dropped. And of course that just leads to more mistakes…
The great shaka Hislop…
Luckily you didn’t spend anything…
If anybody upset go play for Tottenham, we aint here to please the players. If they cant handle being at a big club and the pressure that comes with it, than no wonder they bottled the league, than can leave. If they use this as an opportunity to get better and fight to earn their place, now that is a champions mentality. Nobody cares about if we do “wrong” by the player if we sign competition, we want to win not accommodate a television show for Big brother
One less chance of an injury to a key player ruining our title charge. The owners are going all out for it this season.
This. We can make do with almost every other positions for covers but GK is not one of them
Nailed this. kroenke thinking btw. If the organization thinks this is the year money is not a problem.
same with rams avs and nuggets to a less extent. Nuggets priority was to get Murray healthy. That and sign a defender who can shoot.
This is the reason.
Competition is good thing.
Finally a Spanish speaking player in your squad, so that Arteta can have chats in his mother tongue! “Raya! ya te dije que debes quedarte en el goal carajo!”
if Ramsdale is to be believed then “Raya! ya te dije que debes alejarte del goal carajo!” seems more likely.
Care to translate guys? 🙂
Something about he told Raya to stay in the goal??🤷🏼♂️
Select the text and right click > translate 😉
the first guy said Arteta might yell at Raya to stay in his goal, and the second guy said it was more likely for Arteta to yell at Raya to stay away from his goal.
carajo?
what the fuck did you just call me
Rays translates to stripe apparently.
Raya *
Isn’t Arteta from the Basque countries? I wonder if he speaks the Basque language…
Of course he does.
Didn’t you hear him Basque-ing in glory at Wembley?
Nice
Who knows maybe even “Raya! Ya te dije que debes atacar el otro gol carajo!”
P.s. pretty sure Arteta’s mother tongue is basque but i won’t let that detract from your dreams and wishes. It’s kind of insane we haven’t had a Spanish speaking player since… Torreira?
or Héctor I guess
Jajajaja it’s great to notice that there are polyglots on arseblog news! I enjoy comments in foreign languages to make it more fun
Dobry den vsem
Helt enig 😊
This is just being opportunistic in the market, that’s all. You have goalkeeper of that quality becoming available with one year left on his contract and no competition from any of the other top clubs, that’s just a value opportunity. You take him, and if need be next year you sell him on. He’s an asset and not going to be worth any less than that next year, and if Ramsdale pulls a hammy at any point this season we’re going to be so happy we did this
Seems to be very incongruous with how we are building our squad. Also worried that it sends a message that our young players may not be given space to make the occasional mistake and develop seeing that Ramsdale will likely be relegated to second string. Hopefully it all works out but really don’t see the reasoning behind it
There are not here to make mistakes, but mistakes can happen.
I’ve forgotten who said that at Arsenal, Arteta doesn’t get mad that players fail at their attempt to carry out instructions. He gets mad when they let their head down and allow that mistake get to them.
If the young players repeatedly make those mistakes, especially when they cost us points, then it has to be a mentality thing and they should be benched.
I love all our players, and I would absolutely love that they all succeed here, but I love Arsenal more.
You saw a bit of that with the latest post regarding Reiss where Arteta told him, “Go at your man. I don’t care if you lose the ball. Keep going at him.”
The idea that this sends the wrong message to the young players doesn’t mesh with everything we’ve seen before. In fact, we’ve seen time and time again that as long as players have both the talent and work to meet the standards required, they have a place here. Reiss Nelson is exhibit A. Hell, even if they don’t quite have the top talent level, if they’re putting in the work, there may still be a place in the squad. See Elneny. He could probably start on teams with lesser talent levels and ambition. But he’s unselfish and he puts in… Read more »
Have you not seen Manchester city? you have an excellent example and failed to grasp reasoning. Their fourth choice keeper sold for £20M? why is that? because they have such immense COMPETITION throughout. so much so they are actually producing genuine talent. Cole palmer and foden and that full back i cant remember have come through. The benefits far out weigh any negatives here, the only issue is if we have the capacity and the individuals to pull this off
Huge love and respect for Rambo and his attitude.
Undoubtedly our best keeper since Wojciech, probably since Lehmann… or maybe even since Safe Hands himself? Hope he goes on to be an Arsenal legend and England number one.
I feel like Petr Cech doesn’t get enough recognition. He was great for us.
I dunno that he was great, he was pretty good, but he’s been retconned by some into some huge underwhelming flop and he just wasn’t
Rammers. Rambo is Aaron no?
Blogs mentioned in the blog this morning the worry about squad harmony by having two goalkeepers in the squad, but I figure it’s worth pointing out that Ramsdale has always espoused the notion that the goalkeepers work together as a team and push each other, rather than the Almunia-Lehmann feuds of yesteryear. He’s been number 2 for England behind Pickford for ages now and has never been anything other than supportive and hardworking in England camps, and when he is number 1 he’s the first to recognise the role of his backup goalkeeper in pushing him and supporting him –… Read more »
Well said. And 100% on point – if Ramsdale hasn’t kicked up a fuss up till now about Pickford *still* somehow being ahead of him, who’s nowhere near as good as Raya (or Rammy) then we have absolutely zero to worry about from his side.
If only we had two number ones 2006… It might not have mattered being a man down. Well. That’s in the past now! Good times ahead!
Well said. Top man, our Rambo!
Watched JJ from Tifo football’s comparison of the two. Not hating on Ramsdale, but Raya is an upgrade on him in all areas. If Arteta is as ruthless as I think he is, he’ll walk right into the starting lineup.
Well, not only stats but also watching both (Raya and Ramsdale) shows that Raya is definitely upgrade. Not many around here will agree because they love Rambo, which is easy to understand since he is great shot stopper and great guy, and when you love someone you tend to overlook their flaws. Rambo is great shot stopper, as Leno was btw, but him playing with his feet still leaves a lot to wish for. Especially for the way Arsenal tends to play from the back. His high balls, over the oposition defence, are to slow, with huge trajectory and to… Read more »
For the first time since we moved to the Emirates, i feel like we are behaving as a big club and not some pretender.
Agreed bro. But if the same thing is done by Chelski we call it Russian warlord money; the Qataris of City – state owned money; The Saudis owning Newcastle – human rights violation, LGBT issues etc.
FYI: I am doing a PhD in Human Psychology and this blog, Dailymail, BBC etc comment section all provide diff perspectives which changes with time; leaning towards the right or the left or neutral.
Thanks!!!
7-10 mill for the USMNT first choice keeper. And to a PL club too. We just never seem to sell well, do we? At least not since the Ox and Iwobi.
Off the back of giving trusty away for basically nothing…we totally suck at selling.
Bought Trusty for £1 million and sold him for £5 million a year later – or did I miss something?
Yeah, you did, based on his loan season he had the potential to be pretty good and worth more than 5mil which is basically nothing!
7 million for a 29 year old who’s never played a minute of league football outside the USA. Sounds fine to me.
We made a profit off our backup keeper who mades zero league appearances. I’d say it’s good business
My view is this is a sign of Arsenal taking all competitions seriously. Turner isn’t up to playing for Arsenal.
One thing is for sure, we need silverware (other than community shield) this season.
If it’s “only” an FA Cup, so be it. But we are good enough to not be satisfied by just contending.
Bring it on! Love it Rambo. This attitude is what will make him an Arsenal & England legend. Ramsdale is the real deal. My 9 year old lads favourite player and mine too.
Raya is too short for my liking. Doesn’t make him a bad keeper and he’s taller than Koepke and Barthez, I just prefer that the GK is taller. I also felt we had other priorities. Anyway Welcome to Raya and good luck. Just hope he’s better than the last GK this coach recommended.
1,83 m to be exact. But he looks quite good at least from YT videos.
Good competition and healthy.
Arteta is showing the type of ruthlessness required to not only become a top club but stay there. Even the best of managers can be prone to staying with players for too long (See Klopp in Liverpool).
I know as fans we have our sentimental favorites whether based on performance or because they came up with the club. Ramsdale is certainly one of mine and I will always root for him to succeed here. But I’m never saying no to an opportunity to improve the club. And Raya, whether he starts or deputizes, is an improvement of the club.
Not necessarily if it unsettles ramsdale and negatively impacts the dressing room vibe…this is a risky move and not really one we need at this moment given other needs…
Yes it’s absolutely imperative
Whether it might unsettle Ramsdale should not enter the equation. And as far as the dressing room, unless Raya is a complete arse, it shouldn’t affect them at all. Everyone knows the score. As long as you adhere to the non-negotiables, performance will win out. And there isn’t a player on the team who is going to turn away from a teammate who may make them better and allow them to win more. Arteta’s stated goal is to seriously compete for all trophies. All of the moves this summer have been fully in line with that goal. We’re past the… Read more »
Fully behind this. The best this club has been in the GK department for ages.
Ramsdale is a very likeable guy and he will be a great back up for Raya.
arsene wenger voice “when good players are available, you add them to the squad”
I really feel like there would have been way better ways to spend £95M than on Havertz + Raya. Especially if we keep Partey.
But again, I thought buying Ramsdale + Ben White was a bad idea… So maybe Artera and Edu know better than me !
Two great goalkeepers. And with a coach with an intimidate knowledge of how they react to competition for their place, it seems a no brainer.
Looking forward to some behind the scenes media and insights into more of their fun training sessions. Makes you want to try goalkeeping!
Could we now start to see innovation in goalkeeping now we have 5 subs?
The keeper impactor substitution, changing keeper depending on the gamestate.
Many teams last season just pressed as hard as possible for the majority of the first half and hope to nick a goal and low block the rest of the game.
Could we see Ramsdale start in order to beat the press and draw out the opponents. Then Raya come in to help in switching play left to right.
I don’t have any stats to back up this hypothesis. But it would certainly be interesting to analyse how many assists Raya got for Brentford last season from his long kicks and analyse what the game state was.
Eg
60% key pass/assist during the chaotic first 15min period
40% to Ivan Toney to avoid a counterpressing situation.
Basically we are next level now.
I’m loving this.
I love Ram, but his performances tailed off towards the end of last season (although the whole squad did in fairness). He had a few brain farts here and there. At this point I think it is really about marginal gains, I love Arteta’s ruthlessness, I honestly never quite got the “we can’t buy this player because it will prevent <insert player here> from playing” – who cares? If you can get 5% more performance in a position from buying a player who usurps an established player , then so be it. These guys get paid millions and millions and… Read more »
Exactly
It’s the classic fan mentality. We want to win everything but we want to see it happen with our favorite players. The latter is a wonderful sentiment but that sentimentality hurts our chances at the former. And, while it’s no relevant to this particular instance, it’s even worse when it is one of our homegrown players. The reception would likely be a lot worse if Ramsdale was an academy product instead of just a charismatic player who has done really well for us.
I’m still rooting for him. I love Ramsdale. But I want us to win more.
Absolutely. I do also share the dream that we win a title with a feast of home grown players at the helm, but in reality it’s not going to happen unless you have a golden generation come through like United or Barca have had. More than likely our home grown players are just going to have to compliment established purchased players.
I wounder if this transfer is more about buying raya on the cheap hopefully he does well when he plays and then sell him for a profit next summer?
On the cheap? £30 million for a GK is on the cheap now. How times have changed lol
Difficult one if one player is benched for a long period. Back in the day England created a job share with Shilton and Clemence alternating every other game for a period. Not sure that works so well for a club though. In reality one will leave sooner or later, but Arsenal are at least well stocked for this season.
The Kroenke’s aren’t perfect but their backing of Arteta’s Arsenal has been excellent.
For me, I think the turnaround on how I viewed them started when Josh became the face of the family where the club was concerned. It strengthened considerably after watching the Amazon series. And now with the money they’ve put in over the last few years to back the manager and his plan, I’m at the point where they’ve gotten a Xhaka level redemption arc from me.
Seems a strange signing but important to trust the process. I have full faith in the man that wanted to spend £80m on Mudryk.
Mudryk has been doing well for Chelsea so far this preseason
Does there have to be a number 1 keeper & the other playing second fiddle? Arteta is all about try out of the box tactics – having two first class keepers might allow them to used to their strengths against different opposition. Or maybe just sharing the role 50:50 – two top class keepers, pushing each other whilst still happy that they’re both getting game time
From the days of a past-his-prime Cech and Ospina, with all due respect to them, to Ramsdale and Raya. Wow!
Loan with option to buy? Brilliant. I recently stated kse goes all in if they think they can win. That is what this is. Option will not be exercised but we are protected against injury this year
Was reading somewhere that Raya qualifies as Home Grown.
Suspect unless we get this done ASAP Madrid will be taking Raya now that Courtious is out for the season.