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From Spain: Arsenal table formal offer as Emery eyes 1st January signing

By on January 2, 2019

According to reports coming out of Spain via the Metro, Arsenal have tabled a £14m offer to sign Keylor Navas as the goalkeeper looks to leave Real Madrid this winter.

Navas helped Madrid win 3 consecutive Champions League trophies over the past three years but he lost his place at the start of the season after Thibaut Courtois arrived from Chelsea.

The Costa Rican hasn’t started a league game since August and has only featured twice in the Copa del Rey so understandably there has been speculation suggesting he’s looking for a fresh start in January.

Navas has just 18 months left to run on his contract so Madrid could be tempted to cash-in this month before his value depreciates and it seems Arsenal are prepared to offer the 32-year-old a new challenge in England.

The Metro are citing a report from Spanish newspaper Sport that claims Arsenal have opened talks with Madrid about signing Navas and have tabled a formal £14m bid for his signature.

There were reports last month suggesting that Arsenal were eyeing a move for Navas. Many at the time brushed them off as nonsense but it seems we’ve now formalised our interest, if these latest reports are to be believed.

To add fuel to the fire, Navas took to social media to upload a photo [seen below] of him with the Madrid fans and a caption saying ‘Thanks for everything!’, so it looks like the goalkeeper is bidding farewell to the Spanish giants ahead of a move.

I am a fan of Navas and he’d certainly be an excellent replacement for Petr Cech – who turns 37 at the end of the season – while he’d provide top class competition for Bernd Leno.

However, it just seems bizarre that Arsenal would spend £14m on another goalkeeper so soon after spending £20m on Leno – especially while we need to strengthen so many other areas of the squad.

Before the start of next season, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Danny Welbeck and Aaron Ramsey are all set to leave on free transfers when their contracts expire so we’ll need to sign a new right-back, centre-back, left-back, wide attacker and central midfielder over the coming months.

Cech will also be leaving but Emi Martinez could step-in as back-up for Leno so a new goalkeeper shouldn’t be regarded as a priority right now, particularly as funds are supposedly tight. Therefore, I’d personally be stunned if we agreed to splash out £14m on Navas this month.