Arsenal: Timo Horn giving Gunners something to root for in Germany

Arsenal have a lot of current and future problems to worry about, so goalkeeper may not be on top of the list, but then there is Timo Horn.

Arsenal’s laundry list of issues is, well, long. Up and down the pitch, there are voids big and small, where players are either out of position, too old, not reinforced or simply not good enough. And then there is the keeper position.

Petr Cech was an astute singing. He has been holding down the fort adequately, but there have been a hell of a lot more questions asked lately then we should have had to ask of our first-choice keeper.

Then again, he’s almost 36, which even in keeper years, is pretty old. Now, I won’t get into why he can’t save a penalty. It annoys the hell out of me that he can’t, but I have trouble holding a keeper responsible when penalties are pretty much a crapshoot. Some are better than others, granted, but regardless, not totally his fault.

It’s in his strengths that we are seeing weakness. He isn’t the best shot-stopper, that was never his primary strength to begin with. He was superb in his game management and decision making and even in that, he has faltered. Not all the time, of course, but he definitely has had his struggles this year.

Behind him is David Ospina, who has been trying to get out of town for years.

There are some young up-and-comers, Emi Martinez and Matt Macey, and you wouldn’t be entirely insane to trust in Arsenal youth – just partially. But it’s pretty well-established that we need a new keeper, and we need one soon. Someone who can actually challenge Cech.

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Wojciech Szczesny would have been perfect, but we all saw how well the pooch was screwed there.

Thankfully, there is an emerging burst of optimism coming out of Germany surrounding 24-year old German keeper Timo Horn. Horn is one of the more promising keepers sitting behind Manuel Neuer in the National Team spectrum.

The price tags floating around Horn are incredibly modest. £8.8m has been one of the higher figures, which would be covered by the Szczesny sale, with some change. But it gets even cheaper than that, with a £5.4m release clause should FC Cologne get relegated, which is looking damn near impossible to avoid now.

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That’s not to say Horn is the de facto solution, but he is a perfectly quality keeper with massive upside given a proper team to anchor and with the right competition, maybe Martinez or Macey or maybe another purchase like Alban Lafont, but competition is the key. And Horn is a completely capable of providing that.

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