Izuchukwu Okosi
Arsenal are believed to be working on a deal to bring Spain goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga to the Emirates.
The Chelsea goalkeeper is on loan at Bournemouth but has a release clause of £5m that came into effect this summer after an interest was shown last year.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelHe was also previously on loan at Real Madrid when Thibaut Courtois was out injured for a long spell.
Arsenal see him a good competition for first choice shot-stopper David Raya at a good price and trust in his professionalism to deliver his best and support the first choice keeper.
According to the Athletic, assuming Kepa lowers his wages, then the £5m transfer fee and weekly wages of £100,000 will be a reasonable deal for a player of his quality.
The thoughts with the Arsenal hierarchy is that they could sign a player for free or on loan and end up with a Neto situation, or sign a prospect like Juan Garcia or Bijlow for s higher fee and fully invest.
This avoids allocating any significant funds to buy a goalkeeper while still getting someone better than Neto.
READ ALSO: Kepa Confident Of Claiming Chelsea’s Gloves As First Choice Keeper At Mendy’s Expense
In terms of his ability, Kepa no doubt does have some clangers in him but has vastly improved over the last few seasons and is ranked 5th (+2.1), 11th (+1.6), 4th (+3.0) at goals prevented.
Essentially over the last three seasons, he has prevented 6.7 goals more than the average keeper albeit boy exactly what the narrative suggests.
Kepa struggles to deal with long range shots but the Arsenal defence are largely impenetrable.
In terms of style, Kepa is good with his feet, experienced and will work well with Arsenal goalkeeper Cana who is also Spanish.
The keeper is not expected to play more than 15 games maximum at the club next season.
Neto played only once during his loan spell.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
