It was clear to everyone that Arsenal needed to do something about their goalkeeping situation this season.
The previous year saw Petr Cech commit many mistakes that no first choice keeper should make. As a result of this, the Gunners went out and got the German Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen.
To add to the goalkeeper’s mix, youngster Deyan Iliev has agreed to extend his contract at the club, as per Arsenal’s official website.
The 23 year old has been at the club for about six years now and has signed an extension that will increase his stay by a few years more. It is hard to see Iliev be the first choice for the club as there are better and more senior keepers ahead of him.
Solving this keeping conundrum is going to be one of the biggest challenges that new manager Unai Emery will face and when he was asked about what he wanted to do, he said:
“I want to work with Petr Cech, with Bernd Leno, with Emiliano Martinez, with Matt Macey, with Ospina. It’s clear that we have [a lot] of goalkeepers but we want to work in the future with three goalkeepers in the first team. Now, I want to look, I want to work every day with all the goalkeepers and then I am going to decide for [who is No 1].”
It has to be noted that the name of Iliev was not mentioned there as Emery even made it a point to mention Matt Macey. So, the extension of the contract is an indication that the keeper will probably be sent out on loan.
He is at an age where he needs to play regularly and those regular chances will not come if he does stay at Arsenal. The reason for this is that there are far too many players who are ahead of Iliev in the pecking order.
There are a few weeks left in the transfer window, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the keeper. It goes without saying that Iliev is a talented, commanding player who deserves to be a regular for a team. But, given the way things are going with the Gunners, it seems that he may have to look elsewhere if he is to progress his career.
