Arsenal: Does Ray Parlour understand a £19 million signing?

Ray Parlour has stated that he expects Petr Cech to start ahead of Bernd Leno for Arsenal next season. I’m not sure he understands the point of a £19 million signing.

With the World Cup ending, the preseason rumbling on and the football society’s gaze slowly lifting towards what is to come and the surprisingly imminent return of the domestic season, it is normal for former players, current pundits and analysts, and mere writers like myself to give their somewhat weightless and worthless opinion on what they think will, should or definitely won’t happen over the coming year.

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That is precisely what former Arsenal midfielder, TalkSport and Sky Sports pundit Ray Parlour has done regarding the Gunners’ change at the goalkeeper position.

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Before providing any context that may alter your perspective of what he said, here are the quotes from Bwin Sports. Take them as you will:

"“I’m very happy with the signing of Bernd Leno, though I think Petr Cech will still be the first-choice goalkeeper. Leno is a young goalkeeper with great potential who’ll be looking to put as much pressure on Cech as possible. Goalkeeper is a vital position and Arsenal need a fantastic goalkeeper to be successful, so we need to hope Cech can pass on the torch to Leno for the years to come.”"

The key part, for me, is this ‘we need to hope Cech can pass on the torch to Leno for the years to come.’ Now, in and of itself, I do not disagree with this sentiment. As fans, like Parlour, we do need to hope that last season’s starter Petr Cech will pass the torch on to presumed future Bernd Leno.

But Parlour speaks in the context of Cech starting next season and Leno sitting behind him. This is where I struggle to agree with his logic. Parlour states that he expects Cech to start next season. He also states that he wants that to happen, with the ‘torch passing’ happening at some point during that process.

That, though, is not what Leno was signed to be. Prior to his summer, he is the seventh-most expensive signing that this club has ever made. Moreover, prior to Allison’s expected move to Liverpool, which, as of writing, has not been made official, Leno is the fourth-most expensive goalkeeper of all time, edging out the fees paid for both Manuel Neuer and David de Gea respectively.

A £19 million goalkeeper has not been signed to sit on the bench for a year. Hoping for that to happen means to hope that Leno is not as good as what Arsenal have paid for him. If he is worse than Cech was last season, then he is not worth £19 million. That seems plain to me. And so I have to question whether Parlour understands the point of a £19 million goalkeeper.

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Leno is here to start. Does that mean he will? No. Not necessarily. But that is the aim. Hoping for anything less is settling for disappointment, and that is not a good motivation to have when it comes to the transfer window.