Arsenal are signing Matt Turner this summer and he has admitted that he wanted to ‘shake things up’ by making the move to North London.
The Gunners missed out on Champions League action having suffered a difficult end to the season.
Defeats to Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United left Arsenal reeling and a thrashing of Everton on the final day wasn’t enough.
Mikel Arteta now heads into the Europa League but will be desperate for new signings to help Arsenal move forward next season.
Arsenal are signing Matt Turner this summer
Arsenal already have their first summer signing done as goalkeeper Matt Turner is coming in from New England Revolution.
Turner’s move to Arsenal was done back in February as the Gunners agreed to pay a fee of £7.5million to bring the goalkeeper to England.
The idea seems to be for Turner to come in as competition for Aaron Ramsdale whilst allowing Bernd Leno to move on this summer.
Turner, 27, has been something of a late bloomer over in America.
It wasn’t until 2018 that Turner became an MLS regular and he wasn’t even selected in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft.
Turner has impressed in America so much that Arsenal are now luring him to England – though that move is seen as something of a risk.
Turner is now going from being nailed-on first-choice stopper at New England Revolution to simply battling for first-team action behind Ramsdale.
In a World Cup year, it’s seen that Turner is taking a massive gamble on his international status.
Turner has now shrugged off his doubters whilst speaking to MLS Soccer, suggesting that he has heard similar dissenting voices throughout his career.
Turner admitted that he wanted to ‘shake things up’ in his career and making the jump to Arsenal certainly does that.
The American seems confident that he make an impact at Arsenal and still push for international caps, seemingly wanting to test himself outside of MLS.
“Those same people are probably the ones that were saying that because I play in MLS, I don’t deserve to play for the national team,” said Turner. “So it’s hard for me to swallow all the things that people say from time to time. I’m going to go out there, I’m going to put my best foot forward. I think it’s definitely a step up for me, and I’m going to take this as far as I can do it.”
“Well, I’ve been playing pretty well in MLS for the better part of three years now. And given the environment of transfers for goalkeepers in particular, this is the first real interest, first real offer that I’ve had and I’ve been trying to make things happen for quite some time. So it seemed like the right time for me.”
“Being a week in, week out starter in MLS didn’t guarantee me to be a starter here for the national team, and going to the World Cup, I obviously want to play games. So I need to shake things up in my club career and I think this is a positive step forward, for me in the long term and in the immediate future,” he added.
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