Arsenal have three quality goalkeepers in their squad in Petr Cech, David Ospina and Bernd Leno. All three are capable of playing regular first-team football in the Premier League.
As Leno just arrived at the club this summer from Bayer Leverkusen, he is likely to be part of Unai Emery’s first-team plans for the season. This likely means that Ospina has been demoted to third choice as it stands, behind the veteran Cech.
Ospina arrived at the Gunners during the summer of 2014, after starting for Colombia during the 2014 World Cup. Though he has shown moments of brilliance, he has never managed to fully establish himself as a long-term first choice option for the club and has made 70 appearances in all competitions for the club since joining.
It looks like the Gunners are looking to offload the 29-year-old on a permanent basis this summer, before the end of the month. Gunners boss Unai Emery has even confirmed that Ospina, Carl Jenkinson and Joel Campbell are three players from his squad that may depart before the end of the month.
While the Premier League transfer window closed on August 9th, clubs may still offload or loan out players until the end of the month. They are not permitted to bring in new recruits however.
Ospina had been strongly linked with a move to Besiktas. However, the Turkish club had wanted to loan the keeper rather than buy him. The Gunners were perhaps right in rejecting such a deal, especially when the keeper will probably not play a role in Emery’s future plans.
While speaking ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League opener against Manchester City on Sunday, Emery confirmed that Ospina may depart. He said according to The Sun: “[On Thursday] the window closed here in the Premier League.
“Today, we had a meeting with the players to close all the possibilities to bring more players.
“We only have three players – Carl Jenkinson, David Ospina and Joel Campbell – with the possibility to leave.
