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Hello! If you’re a Premier League goalkeeper, pack yourself a suitcase.
On the way:
🔁 England’s last-ditch deals
💷 Arsenal agree Ramsdale sale
🐐 Messi on the comeback trail
🦒 The EPL’s tallest player
Ramsdale’s out… who’s next?
The transfer clock is ticking and at last there’s a way out of Arsenal for Aaron Ramsdale. Subject to a medical, he’s off to Southampton for £18million ($24m) upfront.
It’s a big, big coup for Southampton, but a pretty sharp fall to earth for Ramsdale, the poster boy of the eject-a-capable-goalkeeper craze sweeping the Premier League.
Ramsdale is on his way to Southampton (Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Goalkeepers are not for keeps in these parts and the machinations of this transfer window have created a complicated dance in which some are shooting around the division like pinballs. Take this paper trail:
Transfers often work like dominos, but the flow of goalkeepers around the corridors of the Premier League has become the market’s subplot. Ramsdale’s transfer could set off a chain reaction.
Chelsea have shipped out Arrizabalaga (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Arsenal back in the market
With Arsenal now looking to find cover for David Raya, Espanyol’s Joan Garcia — a quiet target all window long — comes into the equation. And that’s before Mikel Arteta potentially picks up the in-vogue accessory: a third-choice goalkeeper who never plays.
Newcastle United have one of those, or more than one. They signed 37-year-old John Ruddy with no intention of fielding him, ostensibly to raise standards in training. Beyond him, the hard-not-to-love Mark Gillespie has as much chance of appearing in the Premier League as me.
In front of them are Nick Pope and Martin Dubravka, not to mention Odysseas Vlachodimos, who cost £20m from Nottingham Forest last month but is 30 and can’t beat Ruddy to the bench. Good luck finding the method in the profit-and-sustainability madness.
Future planning
Liverpool’s signing of Giorgi Mamardashvili stands out. He will stay at Valencia on loan for the season, but by spending £25m on him, they’ve created a succession plan for Alisson. Fair play.
At Forest, their plan appears to be shipping out the USMNT’s Matt Turner as soon as possible, but Carlos Miguel gives them a veritable giant with an astonishing back story — a story TAFC is bringing you next.
Turner shouldn’t be too downcast. Yes, Forest’s pecking order might be a door in the face, but if nothing else, this summer has taught the goalkeeping union to believe that another will open in no time — and with any luck, not too far down the road either.
Carlos Miguel, a giant at heart
We won’t dwell on Carlos Miguel’s Forest debut last night. He was 18 seconds into a Carabao Cup tie against Newcastle when his tame spill of a regulation save shipped the opening goal. Not what he dreamt of.
18 SECONDS!! 😱
Joe Willock gives Newcastle the lead! ⚡ pic.twitter.com/L1nLTO5LBr
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) August 28, 2024
But the 25-year-old Brazilian is somebody to root for. Nick Miller has studied him in a profile that tells the shocking story of how Carlos Miguel’s parents were murdered in their family home near Rio de Janeiro when he was seven. He and his brother survived by hiding in a back room.
Despite the extreme trauma, Carlos Miguel worked to make the grade as a professional goalkeeper — and a talented one at that. His father had been a goalkeeper for Botafogo in Brazil in the 1970s.
Signed by Forest from Corinthians for £3.4million (pennies in Premier League terms), he’s massive: 6ft 8in (204cm), making him the tallest player in the Premier League.
There’s a touching line in Nick’s piece about Carlos Miguel taking friends into his house after flooding in the city of Porto Alegre left them temporarily homeless. The world needs more people like that. Forget last night’s error and go well, big man.
Chiesa to Liverpool but Bajcetic deal hijacked
Liverpool are bringing in Chiesa (Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Our live transfer blog will be going like the clappers. Let’s get to it:
Messi’s comeback trail and Maresca standing firm
(Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Selhurst Park, 100 not out
The Holmesdale Fanatics at Selhurst Park (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Happy birthday to Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park, 100 years old tomorrow. If your idea of the perfect ground is one with cheese rooms, tunnel clubs and Jerrytrons, then Selhurst Park is not your bag — but Danny Taylor is here to tell you why it should be.
The stadium is old-school and a glance around football’s elite levels reveals that precious few venues like Palace’s remain. Leeds United’s Elland Road is one and I’ve watched hundreds of games there. Trust me, they’ll miss the cut-and-thrust of it as and when they upgrade.
Atmospheres are organic things, and markedly different in different countries. I loved this from Michael Cox: a look at why English crowds are not the same as crowds in, say, Germany or Italy — and how English atmospheres completely changed Jose Mourinho’s perception of corners.
Vinicius Junior: ‘We’ll leave the pitch’
(Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Vinicius Junior has been at the centre of a horrendous struggle with racism in Spain — so bad that he broke down in tears at a press conference last season.
He and Real Madrid’s squad are ready to walk off the pitch if it happens again. Good on them, but fingers crossed they’re given no reason to act. They’re away at Las Palmas today.
(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images))
Read the full article here