Arsenal make enquiry for player with £21m clause

Arsenal have made an enquiry for Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia, but their interest hasn’t progressed any further at this stage.

Matteo Moretto reports that Arsenal have made an enquiry about Joan Garcia of Espanyol, but the situation hasn’t moved much since then.

Moretto adds that Garcia wants to play football next season, and unless a big opportunity comes for him, he’s minded to stay at Espanyol to continue his development.

But the report concludes that if Garcia doesn’t leave Espanyol this summer, he’ll likely leave in 2025.

Moretto isn’t the only journalist to mention Arsenal’s interest in Garcia this week, with James McNicholas confirming that the goalkeeper has been identified as a potential signing and a suitable backup to David Raya.

The problem is that the move hinges on Aaron Ramsdale’s future. Arsenal are seemingly only interested in signing Garcia is Ramsdale goes, which is probably why their interest hasn’t gone further than an initial enquiry.

Garcia’s buyout clause is currently set at €25m (£21m), though Arsenal believe they should be able to sign him for considerably less than that, and perhaps even below his previous buyout clause of €15m (£12.6m).

Garcia has been called up for the Spanish Olympic team, after impressing with Espanyol in the second half of the 2023/24 campaign.

It took a while for the goalkeeper to break into the team, only making his first league start on March 2nd. But he then locked down his starting spot, maintaining an 82.5% save percentage and comfortably outperforming his post-shot expected goals against.

Garcia also collected a very high number of crosses (2.14 per 90), at a 16.1% cross prevention rate, even higher than David Raya’s 13.0%. Raya is in the top 1% of all goalkeepers in that statistic.

The goalkeeper stands at 6’3″, which certainly helps with claiming all those crosses.