Arsenal will initially sign Brentford goalkeeper David Raya on a season-long loan with an option to then make the deal permanent in 2024, 90min understands.
Raya has made it clear that he is ready to take the next step in his career, with Brentford repeatedly pointing suitors to a £40m price tag. That figure put Tottenham and Bayern Munich off pursuing a deal, but Arsenal were able to come to a £30m agreement earlier this week.
It isn’t a straight transfer though. 90min understands that the agreement will actually see Raya sign a one-year extension to his Brentford contract so that it then expires in the summer of 2025 instead of at the end of this season – that could have seen him walk away as a free agent.
He will then join Arsenal on loan for the duration of the 2023/24 season, rather than outright. At the end of the loan, the Gunners will have an option to make it permanent for the total £30m already agreed. It is not, however, an obligation to buy.
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That gives Arsenal a get out option should Raya not succeed in establishing himself. In the same breath, should the Spaniard end up returning to Brentford, his value is protected by the contract extension and they would still have the opportunity to command a sizeable transfer fee.
The proposed structure of the deal will financially benefit Arsenal, who have already splashed out more than £200m in transfer fees this summer on Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and Declan Rice.
Hailing from Barcelona, Raya has spent his entire senior career in English football, having moved from Catalan club Cornella to Blackburn’s academy at the age of 16 almost a decade ago.
Raya then eventually made more than 100 first-team appearances for the Lancashire club across League One and the Championship, before joining Brentford in 2019. He helped the Bees earn promotion to the Premier League in 2021 and has been a major factor in the club becoming established in the top flight for the first time since relegation in 1947.
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On this edition of The Chronicles of a Gooner, part of the 90min podcast network, Harry Symeou reacts to the news of the details behind the deal taking David Raya to Arsenal! If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
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