According to The Athletic, Charlton are set to sign Karl Hein on loan.
The Estonia international was due to become a free agent this summer but was persuaded to stay at Arsenal late in the day after he was promised the opportunity to play elsewhere this season.
The decision to award Hein a new contract was a matter of necessity for the Gunners who were staring down the barrel of a pre-season tour without a senior goalkeeper.
He produced a man-of-the-match performance against Bournemouth in the US tour opener before retaining his place for clashes with Manchester United and Liverpool.
Now that David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale have returned from international duty, Mikel Arteta clearly feels more comfortable releasing Hein.
The 22-year-old has been out on loan once before. In the second half of the 21/22 campaign, he joined Reading, then in the Championship, and played five times.
It remains to be seen whether Arsenal recruit a direct replacement for Hein or if they’ll lean on one of the academy’s teenage contingent. New signings Tommy Setford and Lucas Nygaard were both included in the squad for the US tour, as was Alexei Rojas.
The Gunners are still in the market for a new number two assuming a club comes in for Aaron Ramsdale.
Continuing a rich history of Arsenal players going out on loan to The Valley.
Previous alumni include – Song, Sanogo, Bielik, Frimpong, the Coq and who could forget a player who is a more successful footballer than Harry Kane – Matt Smith.
Good luck Karl. We’ll all be watching closely.
Haha
Apparently, according to Fabrizio Romano , he’s going to Valladolid now.
Much better, I was pretty concerned about the standard going to League one. He needs pressure and top level competition. I hope it’s Valladolid.
ln League One, a keeper gets shot at, a lot more than in upper leagues. Keepers get a lot of hands-on experience.
Actually the median goals per game and shots per game of the top 3 english competitions is (; Championship; League One):
EPL: 1.45 and 13.4
Championship: 1.28 and 12.6
League One: 1.24 and 12.1
So, that’s not actually correct. EPL has more goals and shots per game than both the next two leagues at least.
Probably guaranteed to start as well, he would get plenty of practice dealing with crosses as well.
Seems like a good chap and that the club sees something in him, maybe with one more season of proper action under his belt he can become our definite no. 2. Which raises the question, if Ramsdale does go should we just find someone on a 1 year loan to be our no. 2 for this season?
Either way when it comes to his Arsenal career I think Crowded House said it best – “Hein now Hein now, don’t dream it’s over…”
Surely he could do better than a League 1 side? I would have thought a lower Championship team would be the level for someone like him
I’d guess a lower club makes playing time a lot more probable. And we’ve not yet reached the point where we can just force other clubs to take our players and give them a ton of games… If there was a “better” option on the table, surely neither Arsenal nor Hein would have turned it down.
Looks like he’s going to join Real Valladolid in La Liga now which is better for everyone all round
I always think the caliber of the loan team is a reflection of how the player is valued more broadly. I think they wanted a situation where he is 100% going to start plus probably also a reasonable “scheme fit” so he can develop along a playing style that roughly approximates Arsenal or at least a modern setup.
Unrelated: Julian Alvarez to Atletico for 85 million euros completely boggles my mind. How??
And straight after they bought Gallagher for £35m. It’s so crazy.
I can only assume that clubs like Marseilles and Atletico have seen how toothless FFP have been in dealing with Chelsea and City and just think “fuck it”.
But no, a £120m outlay on two players for the third team in the Spanish league just seems utterly bonkers. Especially when you consider that Liverpool (the premier league’s third team) have spent zero.
However, I’ve always loved Joao Felix and this would surely be an amazing time to low-ball them for his signature.
Felix is a petulant child who is ill equipped to play in arteta’s system as he doesn’t work hard enough out of possession (unless red card tackles count).
The talent is so great that I’m almost tempted to agree but just too many red flags: attitude questions aside, can’t see how he coexists with Odegaard, can’t play CF, isn’t a proper winger… nah, not for us.
In for 14M, out for 85m. I completely despise City, but that is some good business right there. If only Arsenal could do that.
Well, if we sold Gabriel Martinelli we probably could.
True, but that would be selling on a regular starter. City sold on a back up/fringe starter for a great price. Not saying I admire City or want Arsenal to be like them, but it would be nice to occasionally get money like that for a player that is not a starter.
I think in a year or so time, if you were to look at Atletico’s books, you would see some very large sponsorship payments made from companies related to City’s owners.
Finally something new posted here, the 2 days mourning for Émile was getting me down.
A new non-alcoholic beer at the Emirates to add to that Camden muck, cheers….
I don’t think Ramsdale is going anywhere. Good that Hein is going out on loan for further development.
I don’t think we should take a loss on him, he’s a very good player and seems to be an even better person/ teammate. There’s no reason not to keep him and play him 10 to 15 games.
Old news. Looks like he’s going Real Valladolid in La Liga
Well, this last long. It now looks like he’s going to Real Valladolid in La Liga