‘One of the best’: ‘Incredible’ 28-year-old Arsenal player has now been urged to leave Gunners this summer
Brad Friedel has told Sporting Post that Matt Turner has to be ready to leave Arsenal in the summer, with the goalkeeper in danger of losing his number one spot with the USMNT.
Turner has only made a handful of appearances for the Gunners following his summer switch. Understandably, he has been an understudy for Aaron Ramsdale throughout the campaign.
He would have surely been under no illusions that he would be second choice at the Emirates. But that move was something of a gamble from a personal perspective.
Friedel suggests Turner needs to leave Arsenal
Turner was a starter for his country at the World Cup. But it is not exactly a position that he has a rock solid grasp on. And with that, Friedel is concerned.
The retired goalkeeper has suggested that Turner would be taking a real risk with his career should he spend too long at Arsenal.
“I think that Matt, no matter what, even though Arsenal are an incredible club, has to find consistent football somewhere,” he told Sporting Post.
“This season, fine, but if he’s not going to be the number one he has got to go. The only issue is that he’s on a long contract and if you’re Arsenal, why would you let him go? You’ve got an incredible goalkeeper, an incredible guy, a great worker, you have one of the best number two’s on the planet.”
Signing a number two goalkeeper must be one of the hardest jobs in football. More often than not, that player will be aware when joining that they are unlikely to play a huge amount.
Sometimes the move pays off. Few could have foreseen just how quickly Ramsdale would take the number one spot from Bernd Leno following his own move in 2021.
But the move can also backfire. Alex Runarsson looked to be well off the level required when he joined the Gunners the previous year.
So Arsenal will indeed be wary of losing Turner. There is little talk of the American rivalling Ramsdale right now. But he is someone who clearly has a lot of ability. You would imagine that many sides in the Premier League would happily take him as their backup.
Having said that, you could hardly blame the boyhood Arsenal fan for wanting to join Mikel Arteta’s side. He will surely have mixed feelings about the prospect of leaving the Emirates in the coming months.
