This morning I was half way through writing a blog discussing goalkeeper targets when the news of Mat Ryan broke.

Ryan was top of my list of targets (the blog will never be published so you will just have to believe me).

At 28-years-old and with over 120 Premier League games to his name, Ryan fitted the profile to become Bernd Leno’s number 2.

For no real fault of his own, Ryan was dropped by Graham Potter earlier this year in favour of Robert Sanchez.

Ryan had been a solid performer for Brighton in the last 3 and a half years.

The only downside to his signing is that he is not home grown, despite having a British passport.

Passports or birth countries do not matter when it comes to who is and is not home-grown.

The only thing that matters is how long a player has been on an English sides books prior to them turning 21-years-old.

That is why Spanish international Hector Bellerin is home-grown, whilst England international Eric Dier is not.

Likewise it would not matter if you had played in Scotland (ie Kieran Tierney). You have to have been on the books of an English or Welsh club. Not Scottish.

For European football, UEFA do not recognise being on the books of a Welsh club. So Ben Davies at Spurs is home grown in the Premier League, but not home-grown for European games.

Mat Ryan came to England at 25-years-old, so despite his British passport and Scottish ancestory, is not home grown.

Interestingly, signed David Raya from Brentford is home grown despite being born in Spain. Raya joined Blackburn at 17-years-old (one to watch for the summer).

The Australian-born shot stopper takes the place of Sead Kolasinac, meaning Arsenal do not have space for another non-home grown player.

So this means if Arsenal make a move for Martin Ødegaard in the next few days, we either have to de-register a player or move another player on.

Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson seems the obvious candidate now he is 3rd choice keeper.

There is no point having 3 goal keepers take up 3 non-home grown playing spots.

Loaning out Runarsson would be the preferred option, but I can also see a situation where he is de-registered.

Other options would include finding a buyer for Shkodran Mustafi or terminating Dani Ceballos’s loan deal.

Taking into account we only have 4 central midfielders – Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Dani Ceballos & Mo Elneny – I imagine terminated the Spaniards loan deal would be the last choice.

Shifting Mustafi or de-registering Runarsson are the two most likely scenarios.

Watch this space…

Note: The “Matt Ryan” that appears on Arsenal’s home grown list on the Premier League website is Matt Ryan Macey. We sold Macey to Hibernian last week and the Premier League have not yet updated their list (it will not be updated until the transfer window closes)

Keenos