Bayern Munich target David Raya agrees to join Arsenal from Brentford

Per football transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, Arsenal have agreed a deal with fellow Premier League side Brentford FC to sign goalkeeper David Raya, who had been linked with a potential move to Bayern Munich to be Manuel Neuer’s stand-in backup. Romano reports that the documents are being drawn up and that a medical is set to take place at some point this week for the deal to be finalized between the two clubs.

Arsenal are signing Raya for a package of around £30m, which is close to what Bayern assumed they would be paying for the keeper, just only to be Neuer’s backup. Brentford signed the keeper from English Championship side Blackburn for £2.7m back in 2019 and are now making a massive profit on the Spaniard.

It had become clear in the past week or so that Raya was leaning towards a move to Arsenal even though they already have Aaron Ramsdale in the ranks. The Rekordmeister will now have to cross Raya off their list of potential Neuer backups and are pressed for time to find a suitable candidate. Yann Sommer just completed his move to Inter Milan and Alexander Nubel got loaned out to VfB Stuttgart, so Sven Ulreich is Bayern’s only remaining senior keeper alongside Neuer.

There’s now even fears that Neuer’s injury timetable can be pushed far back enough that he will miss a large portion of the Hinrunde, meaning that, as things stand, Ulreich would have to start all the matches in that time frame. This has made it all the more important for Bayern to try focusing on signing another goalkeeper before the transfer window closes at the beginning of September. They’ve also been linked with David De Gea, who is no longer technically under contract at Manchester United and is now a free agent.

Should we just call up T-Swift?