Neville hails imminent Arsenal statement transfer as Arteta signing is too ‘erratic’
Gary Neville thinks David Raya will prove to be an important signing by Arsenal if they can get a deal for the Brentford goalkeeper over the line.
The Spaniard had a brilliant season for the Bees last term as he helped them to a ninth-placed finish in the Premier League this season.
His form has led to interest from Arsenal with the Gunners making a £20m plus add-ons offer for Raya last week, only for the bid to be rejected.
There are rumours that a bid of £30m could be enough to tempt Brentford into selling Raya – who has one year left on his contract – despite Thomas Frank hoping to get £40m for one of his best players.
“I hope [we get an offer], we are waiting to sell,” Frank told NBC Sports just over a week ago. “David would like to go. That’s fine for us. If a club want to buy [him] they just need to find out the price. So I guess it should be simple, but apparently it’s very difficult!
“He’s worth £40m – I’d love to get that for him. He was one of the four best keepers in the Premier League last season.
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“What is the price for a player with one year left? Declan Rice went to Arsenal for £105m – is that a fair price? And Harry Kane, one year left, and they’re talking about £150m?
“Anyway, it’s not up to me. It’s always complicated. Two sides of the coin when it comes to negotiations and we meet somewhere in the middle.”
And former Manchester United defender Gary Neville thinks Raya will be a good signing after Aaron Ramsdale’s “erratic” form towards the end of last season.
Neville said on The Overlap: “I thought Ramsdale did struggle a little bit in the last five or ten games.
“I like Raya at Brentford, so I thought the idea of signing him was a message that he’s not taking what happened last season lightly, Minor details caused them a problem in those last 10 games, and Ramsdale was one of those issues in the last 10 games. He was erratic, and with 10 games to go you can’t have an erratic goalkeeper.”
But former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor thinks Arsenal should save the money and spend it on another midfielder this summer.
“It’s very strange that Arsenal are spending £30million on a goalkeeper,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider.
“Previously at Arsenal, they had Ramsdale and Leno, who didn’t take while to losing his place and he wanted to leave. Look at Manchester City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester United, they don’t have two top goalkeepers.
“You only need one top goalkeeper as keepers don’t regularly get injured either, they don’t do a lot of running during games.
“So for me, it’s very strange to to even use £30 or £35 million when Arsenal need another midfielder to help with Thomas Partey in the midfield.
“Let’s not forget, goalkeepers don’t need rotating like outfield players, they get the ball to play from the back, and they don’t do a lot of running.”
