Things can move quickly in football.
7 years ago, I thought I would have a little fun on Twitter. I sent up an account called Arsenal Employee and “quit” my job in the club shop to free up money for Arsene Wenger to make some new signings.
Within a week of my “resignation”, we had spent over £50million on Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi.
So yesterday when I wrote the blog about the lack of Arsenal signings, I knew that the chances were high that by the end of the week we might see some departures. As it transpired, it took until about lunchtime for the next player to leave us.
£10million for Matt Turner feels like a good deal all round.
After spending a year sitting on our bench, playing preciously zero Premier League games, an opportunity arose for him to become a first choice keeper at Nottingham Forest. And he pushed for the move.
I am fairly certain Arsenal had no interest in selling Turner, but Edu and Mikel Arteta have always allowed fringe players to depart for regular starts elsewhere.
Both Edu and Arteta are players who have found themselves as back-up dancers at some stage in their career. This has moulded them into a Director of Football and Manager that cares for a players career. They will not hold someone against their will if a fair offer to depart is on the table.
Turner is a player who has worked hard to be where he is.
Never a wonderkid, he did not even start playing football until he was 14-years-old. And he only began to play in goal when when the only other goalkeeper for his freshman team was injured at tryouts.
When it came to joining a College team, he was certainly not top of any recruiters list as a keeper. Eventually he would establish himself as Number 1 at Fairfield University.
At the age of 22, Turner was not selected in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft. He was on the verge of quiting football when he made the New England Revolution roster after impressing as a preseason trialist. He would then spend a couple of years out on loan before returning to New England for the 2018 season.
Now aged 24, no one could have predicted that he would eventually become the US National Team’s number one keeper. He was still 3 years off winning his first cap.
Turner continued to work hard, continued to improve. In 2018 he would establish himself as New England’s number one, before starring in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, he would be named the league’s goalkeeper of the year.
His excellent performances in New England led to his first U.S. cap in January 2021. Five months later, he helped the Americans to the Gold Cup title, raising his profile with some top-tier play that culminated with him winning the Golden Glove award given to the best goalkeeper in the tournament.
And then the big move came.
In February 2022, it would be announced that Turner would join Arsenal for around £5million. He would become number 2 behind Aaron Ramsdale.
Turner has battled from obscruity tofirmly establish himself as the USA’s number 1, so when the opportunity to be a Premier League number 1 arose, he was always going to take it with both hands.
Nottingham Forest get an international standard number 1, Turner gets his chance to play regular PL football, and Arsenal double their money.
It is not really an exclusive to announce that Raya is going to be Turner’s replacement at Arsenal. It is a transfer that got a few people scratching their heads.
Firstly, you have those Arsenal fans questioning the club for getting their priorities wrong, stating that Arsenal should be targeting a striker rather than a goalkeeper.
We have not decided to sign Raya over a new centre forward. We merely need a new goalkeeper following Turner’s departure. Is getting someone better than Runar Alex Runarsson and Karl Hein more important than someone better than Eddie Nketiah? Yes.
Arsenal’s priorities are exactly right.
You then get those opposing fans wondering why Raya has (reportedly) turned down Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United and Bayern Munich.
All 4 of those clubs were looking for a new keeper this summer.
Chelsea opted for Brighton’s Robert Sanchez, Tottenham some unknown from Italy and Man U signed Andre Onana. Raya is better than all of those.
Rumours were Raya was subject to a bid in access of £40m from Tottenham earlier in the summer. And instead he joins Arsenal for £25m.
This all probably comes down to the player himself.
David Raya would rather compete to be Arsenal’s number one then get gauranteed starts at Tottenham or Man U. The pull of Arsenal and Arteta is huge!
The final question is why Aaron Ramsdale would sign a new long term (and why Arsenal would offer one), if the club were targeting Raya. Again, I do not think it is as simple as that.
The Raya deal is one that has materilised in the last 10 days due to circumstance – Turner leaving and Raya wanting out.
Arsenal would have been looking for a number 2 to replace Turner. The prices quoted were probably not too far off the deal we have done to secure Raya.
James Trafford has joined Burnley for close to £20m. Sanchez went to Chelsea for £25m.
We could have gone out and spent £20m and not recruited a goalkeeper close to the ability of Raya. So it also makes sense to spend the additional £5-10m on a top player.
As for how Arteta will get Ramsdale and Raya integrated into the squad, well that is his problem.
Sometimes I feel Arsenal are the only club criticised for having strength in depth!
So we will start the season with Ramsdale as number 1, Raya as number two. Both are home grown, both well under the age of 30. It will now be interesting to see if one establishes themselves as the clear number one. And if they do, if the other one decides to depart in 12 months time.
I have seen some compare it to when we had Bernd Leno and Emi Martinez, with some pointing out “that ended in disaster”.
Leno and Martinez ended up with us winning a trophy. And both Ramsdale and Raya are established number ones (whilst Martinez had only played about 20 games in 10 years for us!).
Martinez was also unwilling to try and fight for his spot, preferring to move to a side that gauranteed him regular football, even if it was for the 17th best team in the league.
Raya has chosen to come to Arsenal knowing he will start the season as 2nd choice, and he will have to battle to be The Arsenal number one. The situations are not comparable.
Turner takes us to around £42.5million incoming, whilst if Raya is confirmed, our expenditure (excluding add-ons) will be around £220m.
That will be a net spend of around £177.5m. That is only around £20m more than Tottenham’s net spend this summer!
I have always said that I expect Arsenal’s net to be around £100m but the time 1 September hits. So we have another £77.5m to go.
And to start how we finished, deals can happen quick.
We will swiftly recoup that once the departures of Folarin Balogun and Kierant Tierney!
Enjoy your Thursday.
Keenos
Note: this blog was written yesterday afternoon. And to highlight how quick deals can happen, the Raya deal was provisionally announced in between its scheduling and the blog going live this morning!
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Must admit, I`m a bit shocked to see us bring in a keeper of Raya`s quality. It`s a ruthless and brutal message to Ramsdale to improve his game or else. Not sure whether having two goalkeepers of that standard is good or not. It`s not a position you want to be rotating, that`s for sure. Arteta is obviously of the mindset that there is no such thing as having too many good players.
As for Turner, after Saturday`s match, I wish him the best of luck. A true professional, reliable, always gave his best, never moaned and forged a great relationship with his teammates and Ramsdale in particular. In many ways, the perfect No2.
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