Goalkeeper turned down late summer move to Arsenal

Wigan Athletic goalkeeper Sam Tickle opted not to join Arsenal as their third-choice goalkeeper this summer, preferring to remain a starter in League One.

Arsenal were linked with quite a number of goalkeepers over the summer, with reports of interest in everyone from Wojciech Szczesny to Joan Garcia, Dan Bentley, and Justin Bijlow.

David Raya, Neto, Tommy Setford, and Lucas Nygaard all ended up actually joining the club, but there’s a sense that the Gunners still didn’t land as many goalkeepers as they wanted.

Raya’s addition was just a formality after his loan spell last season, and Setford and Nygaard are effectively academy signings. With Aaron Ramsdale leaving, Mikel Arteta clearly wanted a couple of more experienced backups to Raya.

Neto goes some way to filling that squad gap, as the 35-year-old has represented some of Europe’s biggest clubs in his long career so far.

But Neto also comes with some drawbacks, notably that as a loan player he can’t face Bournemouth, and given he’s cup-tied he can’t play in the League Cup.

Ideally, Arsenal would have signed a third-choice goalkeeper as well, and they were interested in Sam Tickle of Wigan Athletic for the role.

Yet Alan Nixon reports on his Patreon that Tickle himself wasn’t in favour of the move.

According to Nixon, Tickle turned down the chance to join Arsenal because he didn’t want to be third choice. The Gunners seemingly made it clear that was the role on offer, and the goalkeeper preferred to carry on as a starter for Wigan instead.

It was an understandable decision, and with a deadline-day move for Bentley of Wolves also falling through, Arsenal ended up having to settle for just the two senior goalkeepers.