Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia is the latest keeper to be linked with a move to Emirates Stadium.
The 23-year-old was labelled the “future of Arsenal” by Barcelona-based journalist Gerard Romero during a Twitch broadcast on his Jijantes FC stream; a hint that the Gunners may have made contact with the player.
Garcia broke into the Espanyol senior team in February and kept 11 clean sheets in 18 games as Espanyol sealed their return to the top flight via a play-off win over Santi Cazorla’s Real Oviedo (boooo!).
His form has been rewarded with a call-up to the Spain Olympic football team for the Paris Games in late July.
Other Spanish sources claim that Sp*rs are also keen on signing Garcia as a backup keeper and that his release clause is €25 million.
That’s a lot of money to spend on a relatively inexperienced keeper so you imagine a deal could get done at a lower price.
In recent weeks, Arsenal have been linked with Real Madrid’s Andriy Lunin and Feyenoord’s Justin Bijlow as they weigh up replacements for Aaron Ramsdale. It’s expected Mikel Arteta will allow the England international to depart this summer after he was usurped by David Raya.
Raya’s permanent switch to N5 will be sealed after the European Championships. In the meantime, Karl Hein has signed a new deal at the club and is expected to feature regularly in the early stages of pre-season.
Sigh
Seems a bit mad to me. We might probably won’t get £25m for Ramsdale and Arteta seems uninterested in rotation.
I don’t really get this. But, as with all our business, I leave it in Mikel and Gaspar’s capable hands.
Guess the thinking is we’ll need to sign someone willing to be a number 2 and Ramsdale isn’t. Plus he’s on 1st choice wages where this guy won’t be. And *if* we go for this guy I doubt we pay his €25m/£17m release clause, just every player in Spain has one so they always get mentioned in transfer stories.
You really don’t think we’ll get £25m for Ramsdale? I don’t think we should let him leave for any less than £20m personally. I appreciate our negotiating position is weakened somewhat by it being very clear he’s now our no. 2, but regardless, he’s a fully-fledged England international who’s proven to be one of the top four or five keepers in the league, and is still very young. £25m would still be a bit of a bargain IMO.
Honestly Ramsdale is easily a £50m goalkeeper. We probably won’t get that for him given the season he’s had with us but that’s his quality.
I’d agree if the benchmark was Alisson going for £70m, but outside of the really big boys no club is spending that on a GK. Seems a bit of a weird market, where everyone outside of the usual suspects is looking to pick up keepers for £15-20m.
If he was a £50m goalie we’d have never brought in Raya and wouldn’t be selling him now.
You say that, but exactly one year ago Ramsdale was named by CIES football observatory as the most valuable goalkeeper in world football (they valued him at £67.5m, Donnarumma second at £64m). I expect we’ll get £25m, but would be handy to use him in a swap deal and value him at £40m for accounting purposes (as other clubs are doing right now)
I don’t think Raya is a better goalkeeper than Ramsdale necessarily. I think his attributes just better suit how Arteta wants his team to play.
Exactly this! Ramsdale is going to be a £50m keeper somewhere, I just don’t think we’re in a position to command that kind of fee. My feeling is this Garcia lad is more credible competition for Raya in-terms of what Arteta is looking for, and he is inexperienced enough be patient for a year or two – all the while having his compatriot Raya as a mentor. It’ll kind of feel like £20m wasted for the short term – but we saw the value of Ortega at city when they were without Ederson for long periods last season – ortega… Read more »
I think what can be discerned from the goalkeeper situation is this – the owners have a huge amount of faith in Arteta / Edu – and to retain talented managers you have to allow them to take risks. In any line of work a person wants to prove their abilities – and a high earning position in the public spotlights requires a certain kind of personality, and those who are worth retaining will demand the freedom to prove themselves… The upshot is that there are financial risks for the owners – they had a £50m keeper last summer and… Read more »
I don’t know. The kids behind him don’t look thrilled.
maybe he’s just got an absolute dump truck ass. you’ve gotta learn to be more optimistic mccheese.
He might be at the away end..
They seem to wear Espanyol shirts. But hopefully being bored was due to Espanyol’s defense being so dominant that there wasn’t anything going on at their goal.
If you swap the M and the R on the shirt sponsor round it says Miviera Raya, Raya regen confirmed.
Arteta and Goalkeepers…name a better love story
don’t care. here to say how much I enjoyed reading Stale end? By Tim Stillman today. Love your work tim
Did we just get a Norwegian youth gk?
Danish*
If we just signed a new contact with Hein, I can imagine that there were some verbal and written commitments in it. Make him #2 then and save the club 20+ millions.
I suppose they may see Garcia as being capable of surpassing Raya within a year or two? It sounds like he is highly sought after, and I read an interview with him where he describes himself as a footballing goalkeeper – which is clearly what Arteta is seeking