Arsenal have confirmed the signing of Runar Alex Runarsson from Dijon.
The Icelandic international has signed a long-term deal with the fee believed to be in the region of £1.5m.
The 25 year old arrives to take the place of Emi Martinez who signed for Aston Villa last week for £20m.
Runarsson joined Dijon from FC Nordsjaelland, and although he started as first choice, underwhelming performances saw him lose his place to Alfred Gomis. He played 45 games for the Ligue 1 side.
His signing has been championed by goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana Pavon who worked with him in Denmark, and that relationship played a key part in Arsenal’s decision to bring him in.
Welcome to the club, Runar Alex. Or, for short, Runar Alex Runarsson.
This is a very whelming signing…at least he was cheap.
I still feel we let the wrong goalie go.
that feeling is based on a sample size of half a season, right?
A pretty damn good half a season from Emi. I was convinced. He also had glowing reviews from his last loan spell. Could have easily been voted our player of the season, except for Auba scoring for fun.
Totally agreed. Emi can do everything Leno can do, plus command the box. Over the weekend Leno didn’t claim a single cross. Punched one out, unconvincingly.
Ha. Not even close.
like when u first see viera play u dont need years to know he will work
Edu looks bigger than him!
Jeez. I feel with all this in vogue playing with your feet and high-line stuff we are losing the fundamentals of the position. A big, physical presence in the box. You see it with Chelsea now, kepa is a shrimp.
A wise man once said the game starts in the tunnel. I hope I’m wrong and I wish Runar well, but the feeling isn’t great.
That’s why I loved Emi so much. A giant that catches everything instead of punching it and he was good with his feet, plus the Arsenal DNA thing. Leno is a jumpy shot-stopper like Jordan Pickford who causes too many corners/rebounds. I would have went with Emi’s commanding size all day long.
As I read this thread I’m watching Emi save a penalty against Sheffield United
He departed a hero, and is welcomed as one. I miss him.
I was just about to post about it, haha!
He probably just has massive legs … like he’s on stilts
Tell that to santi fuckin Cazorla.
You’re not being realistic.
I’m tired of going over how it was basically Martinez’s decision, or the fact Leno was our player of the season bar Auba. Or the reality that basically no club in the world has got two excellent goalkeepers in their ranks. I’m tired.
Welcome Runar, I hope you’re a solid enough back up. Who knows? You might not be as bad as they say! ??♂️
Just to play Devil’s advocate a little, why wasn’t selling Leno an option then? I’m sure a German team or two would have been interested…
Because nobody was in for him. Barring Bayern no other German side has the money to shell out 20m+ on a GK. And Bayern already have Nubel as an understudy to Neuer. Even Spanish clubs are struggling financially and have to sell players before they can buy any.
Leno was in world class form only since December until injury which is around the same time Martinez was. If you don’t believe me you can go back to Arseblog comments from Europa League games in September-November when Arsenal fans were calling for Emi to replace Leno.
Thats both silly and wrong.
Sheesh.
He’s gone. Leno is a top class keeper.
FFS, everyone quit complaining.
He is, but let’s hope we don’t rue that label if he comes in for Leno in key match.
We will never know if keeping Bernd was better or worse. Having both was a luxury our transfer budget didn’t afford, 20m for emi was to good to turn down, especially since we could “replace” him with a Top class keeper that had performed consistently for us. But I get you, I really liked what emi gave us, which was maybe a bit more commanding box presence then Bernd.
I remember back in 97/98 when Alex Manninger came in for a few games and played exceptionally well – there were people actually saying that he should keep the jersey. Over Seaman! I think he played 15 games too. I’m not saying Martinez won’t turn out to be great, who knows, but there are parallels. Martinez played in a ‘good times’ kind of zone, same as Manninger (chasing the double obviously), he performed cup heroics too, and was part of pretty much only good memories for us – just like Martinez. Good luck to the guy, but I don’t see… Read more »
cant compare leno to seaman, seaman is in a differnt league and had already been at arsenal no1 for 7/8 years at that point
I’m not comparing Leno to Seaman, Seaman is one of the best goalies in our history. Just drawing parallels in the situation.
Seaman was “annoyed” with the decision to sell Emi, he rates him.
As much as we all like Martinez, we need to look at it objectively. Both Leno and Martinez are of similar age. Yet, Leno has almost a decade worth of top flight experience Vs Martinez’s half season. Leno was hired to be our no. 1 and it was going to take a lot more to dislodge him.
Martinez quite rightly judged that it was time for him to move elsewhere. I’m very thankful for his excellent service last season and wish him the very best.
I am not so sure it was a given that Bernd would stay, I think it’s more the case one of them would be sold to raise funds, when a pretty good bid came in for emi. emi did everything right, and showed a commanding presence that a very good Bernd doesn’t have the physics to replicate, also emi has a hunger and appetite I don’t see in Bernd, but the latter has a track record of high flight experience and performances that can’t be denied. Tough pick.
In addition to what everyone else wrote here I think it’s important to note that no club (apparently) was willing to make a move for Leno given his high wages.
Martinez has that presence and size that made him a perfect goalie. These skinny tiny goalies are no match. Give me a Peter Schmeichel sized goalie over a Iker Cassillas any day of the week. Martinez had the attributes and he was on so little money. We paid top dollar to keep auba and didnt even want to pay martinez 100k a week. He earnt his time to be no.1 at arsenal. He has developed into a hulk and we should not have sold him, massive mistake. We have a tiny Alex Run-Arse Son as his replacement. I know needs… Read more »
Runar son of Runar
As Nordic as can be 🙂
And his son’s surname will be Runarsson, and his daughter’s Runarsdottir. True story!
You should not name your kids when your into your 3rd bottle of absolute, runar runarsson…. come on.
Runar will be fine. He will follow in the footsteps of the great Scandinavian tradition of Anders Limpar, Rami Shaaban, Stefan Schwarz, Sebastian Larsson, Nicklas Bendtner, John Jensen, Kim Källström and, of course Freddie Ljungberg, and more.
And Siggi Jonsson!! And err Pal Lydersen.
Runar the gooner
An honest, if not the most glowing review of his performances. I’d still take him over Kepa though.
Here’s hoping he hits the ground Runing 🙂
I can see that becoming a Runing joke in these parts.
We actually have another keeper too, who isn’t shit
To be fair I guess he might fare better in a team that isn’t fighting relegation
Plus he is still young for a GK
After his transfer, can he still cut the mustard?
Let’s hope he can make a progress and challenge Bernd. We need our first choice to feel the competition. Personally not sure yet if this guy can provide it but I trust Arteta and his staff’s opinion.
Alternatively I guess if you have to make a gamble on one position GK would be it since Leno could quite easily play every game
Provided he doesn’t get injured again
Much trailed transfer. He’s cheap, but l hope he’s better – or becomes better pdq – than some reviews would suggest. If Leno gets injured, which will almost certainly happen at some stage, young Runarrson may be our last line of defence (literally). Fingers crossed.
You are now a Gunner Son
Welcome
He’s always been a gunner.
Gunner Runnersson. That can be his son’s name.
Gunnersson surely
Sure hope he can cut the mustard at Arsenal.
RunArsSon, RunArsssssonal, RunArsene, Run-Arsene-Run …….
I am pretty sure before emi broke to scene 3 months back, everyone rated him at the the same level as we are doing runar now. We would have struggled to sell emi at 2m if leno was not injured. We got the cover we needed, Now lets get our party going.
Our Partey going ?
Wow….
Good, I thought he might do a Runar at the last minute.
I hear he gave the negotiating team a good Runar for their money.
It is very easy to sway either way on who should have been kept for no1. Leno always looked questionable in the air compared to Emi, but is well proven in every other aspect.
A relatively short No2 was never going to match up, but at least he’s cheap and we should give him a chance.
Welcome to the Arsenal Runar!
I don’t understand the negativity. We have 4 years to discuss it. For now, we should be wishing him all the best and best of the times with us!
Here’s to hoping you have a clean sheet everytime you are on the pitch for us!
Runnar the gunner
Welcome to the Arsenal
Firstly we don’t know much about this guy but I’m willing to give him a chance. You never know with the right coaching, that he can’t be improved enough to be a solid acquisition. I say welcome to the family Runar! Hope it goes well! It still makes me laugh the amount of comments about keeping Martinez over Leno! Seriously last summer I bet you wouldn’t have batted an eyelid if we sold him! 9 years of being 3rd choice keeper/ loaned outa me 1 year of being 2nd choice that led to a purple patch for us with Leno’s… Read more »
His father who is the most decent guy you can meet, now a manager, turned down Liverpool at the time, football runs in the family I guess. Im Icelandic, I have no idea if he is any good, always really played abroad.
Let’s hope it gives enough time to one of our crop of super-talented young goalkeepers – and according to Jeorge there’s a few of them – to become the real deal!
Either this or he happens to be such deal himself, of course.
Anyway, welcome!
I wish him the best. I hope he can help Arsenal to have a better season on Premier League
Bit of a weird one tbh, his stats aren’t great! But welcome to the Arsenal, i hope you do well
what a save from Martinez! miss him already
He still looks like third choice material to replace Macey who wants first team football. Another keeper will probably still come in.
He has got ars in his name. Destined to be a gooner
Well judging by his YouTube compilation WE’VE JUST SIGNED THE BEST KEEPER IN THE WORLD. Well done The Arsenal!
I am not pretty excited about him but he will do for this season as a backup. He is 3rd choice at best.
Well given he’s from Dijon he must be mustard.
Anyone else think Edu constantly looks like a photoshopped version of himself?
Reasonably decent business.
Low cost, another decent prospect in the mix.
Surprise Macey not as highly rated, he may opt to shift out. Or Iliev.
Only thing with Runarsson is for an Ice man he isn’t particularly tall for a keeper at 6’1.
But he’s also coming in with apparently good feet and perhaps he is more a reflex keeper like Ospina.
In any case, keeper back up should be sorted.
…we need to be more concern with either a DM or a LCM.
We bought a second choice keeper of a third class team for 1.5mn. And his wages will be doubled to tripled, as now is Arsenal keeper.
2 years down the line, we will pay him 1.5mn to get rid of him
Wow, we really have a lot of money to waste. Martinez would have been sold for 1.5mn, if not for his heroics in FA cup.
I am not sure, who is agrees these prices for Arsenal. But this person deserves to be fired.
I still have not read any explanation why Matt Macey hasn’t been put in as no.2. If he isn’t that a good a keeper, then why hasn’t he been shown the door.
Makes no sense to me why we are buying another keeper, when we already have one who can step into Leno’s position if he got injured.
If I were Macey, I’d be packing my gloves.