DAVID RAYA AGREES PERSONAL TERMS

02.08.2023 03:18

Le Grove

David Raya has agreed personal terms with Arsenal – now all that is left to do is land an agreement on fee. Brentford is asking for £40m, Arsenal want to spend £30m, I’d imagine we’ll do a madness and meet in the middle. This is a huge spend for a back-up keeper which is exactly why I don’t think we’re looking at a luxury back-up solution here.

There are some tactico crazies out there (Mike McDonald) who think we could be seeing the next evolution of Premier League football – sub-able keepers to give teams something different late in the game. Where has this wild idea come from? The Premier League voted on 5 subs per game. They can be made on 3 occasions during a game. This is what we saw during the pandemic. Mike is suggesting we’d bring on Raya late on the game because of his wildly accurate long ball passing.

If Arsenal sign Raya I’m going to make a cheeky prediction….

Arteta will be known as the first coach to start subbing his GK in order to go backwards then direct over the press.

Ramsdale is good going long. Raya is elite.

Raya….410 accurate long balls vs Ramsdale…178

— Mike McDonald (@mike_mmcdonald) July 30, 2023

I think the reasoning is less sexy and more functional. Aaron Ramsdale has high HIGHS and LOW lows. The Premier League challenge this season is going to be very tight if we get off to a good start and have lady luck on our side. Manchester City landed 95 points last season and literally everything went for them. No awful red cards, no HIDEOUS ref decisions, and no injuries. This summer, they’ve lost a chunk of experience, including their captain. Unless everything goes for them again – I could see the levels dropping a bit. Maybe next season the winning number is 86-87 points?

Arsenal can’t afford to have an indifferent season from Ramsdale. There can’t be a dip in confidence and LOW lows. He needs to be at his absolute best, which I don’t think we’ve seen consistently since he first joined. Raya is a kick up the backside, but I think the reality is he is going to be put in goal if Ramsdale makes a mistake next season.

We’ll see though. Maybe I’m reading into it. I just don’t see how Arsenal feel rich enough to invest that much money in a back-up keeper.

Whatever happens, it’s quite exciting. Aaron Ramsdale has been a very, very good keeper for Arsenal. Under normal circumstances at most clubs, he’d be getting a full run at the season. Not under Areta. He is speed-running success at Arsenal and if anyone dips, they are under threat right away. This is the opposite vibe of the latter-day Wenger years. I do worry the brutality needs to be matched with good results – people that are savages can keep a squad together if things are going well, if there are major dips, it can sometimes mean bad times. Jose Mourinho was that guy – his savagery led to many trophies and every club bar Spurs. But when things went off the rails, they really, really went off the rails. Because no one was loyal to him.

I need to stop being soft – as I’ve said before, everyone like the idea of high-performance leadership, until they see a metaphorical baby lamb slayed in the back garden. I’m feeling squeamish about this move even though I understand it in the cold light of day. Maybe that’s why I manage tweets and nice pictures for a living – I’m just not cut out for this sort of brutality.

In other news, the new Adidas 3rd kit was leaked. Quite shoddy that for the second time, Arsenal has lost an exclusive to a leak, I feel for the tweeters and picture makers. The new shirt is the long-predicted green shirt. The design is very classic, the materials look premium, the engineered fabric looks really nice, and some of the details are top-class. This kit, I’m afraid to tell you, was aimed at people my age. It’s hard not to like it – but it’s also hard to love. That blue and green kit doesn’t have any historical relevance to me – I remember spotting it in an Arsenal book when I was young and I asked my dad about it and he told me ‘everyone hated it, so that was that.’ I don’t hate this one – but it doesn’t make me feel young and it doesn’t make me feel nostalgic.

BUT – that doesn’t mean I’m not going to fall in love with it when we beat Spurs 4-0 wearing it. Adidas shirts that I don’t LOVE are still way better than whatever went before. The home kit is extremely awesome, I love the away kit so much I changed our podcast colors to match, so we’re all gonna be ok if I just like the green shirt.

Some other transfer bits for you to inject between your toes:

Auston Trusty moved to Sheffield United for £5m. For the life of me I don’t understand how the Birmingham player of the season can be worth so little, but there we are, that is Arsenal and selling for you.

Flo B and his gaggle of agents have asked Arsenal to lower his asking price from £45m. Hilariously, Mr Sullivan over at West Ham has put his interest hat in the ring. Why did he not ask about Balogun when we were in for Rice? Hope we put the price up.

Mohammed Kudus rumors are still absolutely bubbling. The Ghanaian is attracting a lot of interest from Premier League clubs. I’m not shocked, he’s rough diamond, can play in a lot of positions, and he has absolutely explosive power that would light up our forward line or more advanced midfield positions.

Still some work to be done on the exit front – we’ve raised £26m so far – I think the club will be looking to recoup about £120m by the time the summer ends. Can Edu deliver? Who knows.

Ok – a HUGE thank you to everyone who listened to the podcast last month. It was our biggest month ever. Come join the Thomas Partey and subscribe below. This one is FRESH off the BBQ.

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