So it looks like we sold the wrong keeper..

I'm sorry, but I'm with DJ on this one. If Leno was put on the market, you wouldn't fetch even half his paper value in this market. Apart from Chelsea no one is that desperate for a goalkeeper in that wage class, all the top 6 clubs in the big leagues either have a decent goalie or are waiting to snatch up bargains due to Corona.

In fact, that's why Suarez went to Atletico for free, why Vidal went for free. In any other year you would find loads of English/Chinese club with too much money taking a shot. Many clubs will go bankrupt with 1 more black swan event in the next 12 months and will want to keep wage bills as low as possible while being competitive.

Lol your trying to say no one would have spent more that 16M for Leno?

comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 19 seconds ago
Lol your trying to say no one would have spent more that 16M for Leno?
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£16m? Emi went for £20m why would we go less for Leno?

Plus, again, you have to ask who is paying his wages on top of a fee.

Even Chelsea only paid £20m for their new keeper, rather than breaking the bank like they did with Kepa.

comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 2 minutes ago
Lol your trying to say no one would have spent more that 16M for Leno?
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At this point in time, no, really. If a top club was looking for a new goalkeeper, lets say Utd because they are done with Dave, I would expect them to look at for example Onana or maybe a goalie from one of the Portuguese clubs. They will be on much lower wages and have similar prices. Also, a goalkeeper might not be the first priority, there are some gaping holes in most top squads waiting to be filled with a field player.

Keepers signed in this window:

Mendy - Chelsea (€24m)
Ramsdale - Sheff Utd (€20m)
Martinez - Villa (€20m)
Schwolow - Hertha (€8m)
Bernardoni - Angers (€7.5m)

Where is the market? Which big clubs are in for a keeper?


The titular question is easy to answer - we sold the keeper we could sell.
Bats question is different - why did we sell either. The answer is probably because we needed £20m (AMN nearly went for the same amount), Emi wanted guarantee he was #1 so made it impossible to keep both, and Arteta made the call that he couldn't give that guarantee. Thus Emi became the obvious choice to sell.

Hopefully we needed the £20m to buy Partey and Aouar - but we may never know the true reason we were desperate for that sum.

Martinez is gone. Grow up and move on.

No top club would be in for Leno.

Leno wouldn't want to leave for a lesser club.

Pretty simple really.

That maybe true Tu. But did we ever test that out?

I always preferred us keeping Emi.

Its all down to preference of style. Leno is the better shot stopper and Emi better at just about everything else. A lot of managers, Wenger being a prime example, have a reputation of not really understanding goal keeping. Wenger only brought in one decent keeper in his 20+ years, Lehman. Great a manager as he was that speaks volumes.

What it comes down to imo is that they are just looking at saves they make in training and go with their preference. Ospina v Emi is a good example. Wenger preferred the springier flashier looking Ospina. I always thought he was better at close shots but Emi was better at longer range shots so wanted Emi over Ospina. Then Emi showed how commanding he is in ht ebox and I wanted him over Leno for that reason.

But that said, he's gone now and the club that bought him are currently sitting above us in the table after avoiding relegation by the skin of their teeth last season. They are looking more organised and better defensively, but we are looking wirse again. Thats the Emi effect.

I think the need for a new keeper was personified by the 3rd goal. It was an easy floaty ball into the box. Instead of calling off Luiz and collecting a simple ball he started and then hesitated. Luiz had a soft header back into the danger area and Jota scored.