Arsenal: Is the Bernd Leno stretch on stretched resources worth it?

Arsenal are reportedly chasing Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno. But is the German actually worth the stretch on already stretched resources?

When the summer window began to wind up about a month or so ago, it was widely reported that Arsenal would only have an approximate £50 million budget to spend. That did not include transfer sales, which could come through the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Lucas Perez and even Alexandre Lacazette, but was still a paltry figure in the modern market.

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In Unai Emery’s introductory press conference, Ivan Gazidis noticeably swerved BBC Sport’s David Ornstein’s question about the budget, assertively pointing him to the public financial figures of the club where all the information could be garnered.

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Gazidis’ cloak-and-dagger answer was telling: he did not want to talk about the budget whatsoever, most likely because it flew in the face of the apparent title-challenging ambitions that he and the club hold.

And that brings me to the reported transfer targets of the Gunners this summer. Because of the many needs that must be filled this summer, there was always going to be a very frugal element to their transfer work. Gazidis and co. needed to sign five or six players to bulk out the squad in several key areas, but had extremely limited resources to do so.

One of those many positions is the goalkeeper. Petr Cech suffered a disappointing season, David Ospina has been widely considered as short of the required standard, while Emiliano Martinez and Matt Macey are not ready at best and simply not good enough at worst. An external solution, then, had to be found.

It seems as though the club has found one, Bayer Leverkusen shot-stopper Bernd Leno, who just missed out on the Germany World Cup squad this summer. Arsenal are reportedly set to meet Leverkusen’s £20-million valuation to sign the player and Leno is keen to make the north London switch.

There is just one problem that I have with the move. It’s quite a big problem. Leno isn’t actually very good. He is a talented goalkeeper who has the physical and athletic traits that draw teams into thinking that he can be a stout shot-stopper, and he can when is in form. But like with so many Arsenal goalkeepers in the past, lapses in concentration, moments of madness, needless individual errors often undermine his performances.

Over the past two seasons, Leno, with nine, has made the second-most errors that have led directly to a goal of all goalkeepers in the Bundesliga. And some of them have been real shockers. He is only 26 and his form a couple of years ago was far more promising than his more recent performances. His mistakes do not make him a bad signing. But at £20 million, the question of stretched resources needs to be asked.

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Is the Bernd Leno stretch on stretched resources worth it? I have my reservations.