What do the David Raya links mean for Aaron Ramsdale?

Arsenal’s summer business is far from done with the club still wanting to bring players in to strengthen the squad, but the latest link has some scratching their heads.

Several reports are floating around that Mikel Arteta is again interested in bringing in Brentford goalkeeper David Raya.

While nothing is in the works as the Gunners and German giants Bayern Munich monitor the situation, James Benge of CBS Sports has stated that if a deal was agreed with both teams, that Arsenal would be Raya’s preference.

So, what does this mean for Ramsdale?

What do the David Raya links mean for Aaron Ramsdale?

https://twitter.com/afcstuff/status/1685924244889247745

Is Arteta wanting to bring in Raya as competition for the starting role or simply to have a solid backup with Champions League games now on the schedule? Either way, Raya is a superb keeper, and perhaps one of his best qualities is his distribution by foot – something that Arteta loves in his keepers.

Last season, Raya had 12 clean sheets for the Bees and attempted the most passes by any keeper in the league (1,376), with the next best being Liverpool and Alisson with 1,278. For reference, Ramsdale only had 956 attempted passes.

Raya only conceded three more goals than Ramsdale last season (46) and only had one less clean sheet.

With Matt Turner and Karl Hein not showing enough to warrant enough confidence from Arteta, perhaps getting a proven keeper to not only serve as a backup but also potentially push Ramsdale is the line of thinking here.

Arteta has admired Raya since 2020 when he had multiple bids rejected and now it appears that he is ready to return to the well.

It does seem an odd way of using transfer funds at this time, but if reports are to be believed, Arteta wants genuine competition for Ramsdale this season.

Will it be competition or a takeover? Time will tell.