David Ospina, as we all know, is somewhere at the edge of the world basking the Sun and having a swell time with his family. He spent a considerable chunk of the summer protecting the goal of his country, Colombia, in the recently concluded Copa America and in the four games he played in the tournament, he kept an impressive three clean sheets which included world champions like Brazil and Argentina.
Back in North London, his place in the squad as obviously been taken over by Petr Cech (see pictures of him training) and with Wojciech Szczesny still on Arsenal’s books as well, many believe that it would be impossible for the Gunners to use all three goalies in the course of the 2015/16 season.
The Metro published a piece a while ago reporting that Ospina had agreed personal terms with Turkish club, Fenerbahce, and a fee in the region of £4 million had been agreed between both parties (Arsenal and Fenerbahce). In the wake of Ospina’s quotes from a recent interview, it seems that the Fenerbahce story is bollocks and the closest team keen of securing his services is Premier League outfit, Everton.
Ospina has recently reiterated his desire to see out his four year contract with the club,
“There are some possibilities of playing on other teams, and I always look and analyse things, but my mind is at Arsenal. I’m happy in London and my family is too, so we hope, at least, to respect the contract with the club.
“For me, coming to a big team like Arsenal is a dream come true. The balance is positive, collectively we won the FA Cup and achieved direct qualification to the Champions League, unfortunately we could not fight for the Premier League title, as Chelsea won it too easily.”
Coming from a club like OGC Nice to one of the greatest teams in world football is certainly a dream come true to any footballer and Ospina had to work hard to keep his place in the squad when Szczesny’s shenanigans paved the way for him. Ospina played 18 Premier League games (20 games in total) and kept eight clean sheets in the competition (10 clean sheets in total). He conceded 11 goals in the league with seven from open play and four from corners. He averaged at least two saves per game with his highest flurry of saves coming in the North London derby against Tottenham. He also averaged a claim success of 93 percent which, in my honest, was a great stat for keeper not really blessed with the height of his peers.
Ospina also took some time to speak about the interest from Everton,
“Everton are a competitive team, and showed good things in league last season. It’s a club to consider and a great opportunity.”
Everton finished in 11th place last season and Roberto Martinez has already delved into the transfer market to sign three players that could improve the team – Tom Cleverley from Aston Villa, Gerard Deulofeu from Barcelona and David Henen from Olympiakos. With veteran goalie and Everton stalwart, Tim Howard, 36, getting towards the twilight of his career with the club, signing a goalie like Ospina would be an upgrade for the Toffees.
It’s a situation he’d have to access, bearing in mind that Arsenal has Cech now. He also had a thing or two to say about the new signing,
“Next season we’ll have next to an excellent keeper in Cech, who is recognised and admired, and I’d be honoured to share with him, he’s a player with great experience. You learn every day, and in this position we stop learning when we retire.”
“We’ll see what happens when I return, and I’ll have a conversation with the coach, but now I’m psyched to continue with the club.”
I think that ‘conversation’ with the boss will go a very long way in deciding Ospina’s future with Arsenal. Not too long ago, Lukas Podolski and his agent, Nassim Touihri, had a ‘conversation’ with Arsene Wenger and he confirmed to both individuals that he could not guarantee Podolski first team football, which led to the German’s move to Galatasaray.
We are coming to see how the situation develops in the coming weeks and I’d keep you posted as always.
Sayonara.
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