If at first you don’t succeed, keep banging your head against the same old brick wall until you knock yourself unconscious. Or something like that. Nottingham Forest have already tried to solve their goalkeeping dilemma once by swooping for an out-of-favour Arsenal cast-off, and now, if reports are to be believed, they could be about to do it again.
Matt Turner has not had a great time at the City Ground. The American had lost his place in Forest’s first team by the beginning of February this year, and has never looked like wresting it back from the grasp of Belgian teammate Matz Sels. But even Sels has garnered his detractors, and it is in this context that Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are being linked with a prospective move for Aaron Ramsdale.
Like Turner, Ramsdale knows what it means to sit on the bench at the Emirates for prolonged periods of time, and like Turner, the England international has little realistic hope of altering his fortunes with his current employers any time soon. He could also follow his former teammate in discovering a fresh opportunity in the Midlands.
According to Caught Offside, Forest are considering a summer swoop for Ramsdale, as are newly-promoted Southampton, but both clubs may baulk at the £30 million asking price that Arsenal are reportedly demanding for their number two. It remains to be seen whether the Gunners would be willing to compromise on that valuation at all, but if nothing else, they do appear to have decided upon who Ramsdale’s replacement will be.
Mikel Arteta’s men have supposedly had a pair of bids rejected already for Wolves deputy Daniel Bentley, with talks ongoing between the two clubs. And if the 31-year-old were to be prised away from Molineux, then there is every reason to believe that his arrival would only expedite Ramsdale’s departure.
