Scouting Report: Assessing Joan Garcia's Potential at Arsenal

The only thing Mikel Arteta loves more than signing the defender has to be goalkeepers. The amount of goalkeepers we have signed under Mikel Arteta, of course, without context, but it's nothing short of ridiculous. It looks like Aaron Ramsdale looks set to leave. He has been linked with a whole host of clubs. Simultaneously, Arsenal will need to source a replacement for the England international. We've been linked with another goalkeeper. We've been linked with another Spanish goalkeeper that I'm sure Inaki Kanya and Mikel Arteta have scouted heavily. Mr Garcia, playing for Espanyol, an Olympic under-23 Spanish winner and obviously a Spain international under-21s level, has been earning quite the reputation in a short amount of time. As well as being linked with Arsenal, he has at times been linked with Liverpool and Real Madrid because, like us, you could argue they need another goalkeeper beyond their first choice selection. In our case, David Rayo. We have also heard reports that we're looking at two goalkeepers, not only Garcia but a third choice, which was at the time Wolves' Dan Bentley, but at this moment in time it appears that hasn't gone anywhere. Sticking on task with Mr Garcia, allegedly Fabrizio Romano and many other journalists have confirmed we'll not only sign a goalkeeper if slash when Ramsdale departs, but the club have allegedly verbally agreed to sign from Espanyol. Who allegedly has a 21.5 million release clause. Allegedly asked to have a verbal agreement in place for this deal to go through. As you guys know in business, verbal agreements that are not in cold-hearted writing, eyes dotted and t's crossed, is potentially dangerous. Now going back to Mr Garcia, by no means am I an expert but just as a fan trying to wonder as to what we are going to get from this goalie in however much he plays, please allow me to humour you. Now, Garcia rised to prominence after a breakthrough 23-24 season, people, with Espanyol, in which he played a vital role in them gaining promotion back to La Liga, the top division in Spain from the La Liga 2 via the playoffs. And again, we know we need a goalkeeper. We know obviously what a goalkeeper has to do, you know, beyond the obvious. We all know in today's day and age, strikers have to do more than score goals. They need to drop into midfield and link up play and things of that ilk. But some things still stay the same. You know, as much as the modern day goalkeeping roles progressed, and we know it's a first sort of initiating attacks, you still need to be able to catch a ball. So beyond you using your hands, it begs the question, what specifically does Mikel Arteta look for in a goalkeeper? Well, where Garcia is concerned, he's obviously 23. So he ties in with this young-esque kind of project that we're undertaking, people. As I said, people, beyond the obvious of what a goalkeeper in a Mikel Arteta system or the modern day is required to do in that role, the modern day goalkeeper, you know, has to be good with their feet. So it's fair to assume that distribution is key for Mr. Garcia, initiating attacks, whether that's giving it to the centre-halves or Martin Odegaard or Declan Rice or whoever drops deep. I always say our first defender at the moment is Kai Havertz, the forward. Our first attacker is currently David Raya. I do think beyond that, people, you know, being good with your feet and initiating attacks, and, you know, if we were to look at what David Raya does on the football field and fairly assume that Garcia would have to mimic that, you obviously need a strong personality and a resilient character. I think both David Raya and currently, you know, Aaron Ramsdale have that because there's been times at Arsenal during their short Arsenal careers to date where they've had to deal with positive and negative sentiments. They've obviously both made mistakes along the way on the football pitch for Arsenal, like everybody, and have had to react to that. You can't get too excited in good times. You can't feel too bad in down times. So I think you need to keep a cool head. You need to have a resilient mentality. I can't exactly say Aaron Ramsdale has a cool head, but you get where I'm going. And then when you look at some of Mr. Garcia's attributes vaguely, you know, he stood out as one of the best cross-claiming goalkeepers last season in Espanyol, which is something David Raya is better than Aaron Ramsdale at, and making those decisions. He stands at six foot three-esque people or in and around that. So he's got good height for a goalkeeper. He also maintained a safe percentage of 82.5% in just 14 games, people, since March of Espanyol, in which during that period he kept eight clean sheets. Again, we have to acknowledge that while he's a Spanish keeper and probably the ethos around goalkeeping and initiating attacks in Spain is more aligned to what Mikel Arteta wants versus what a traditional goalkeeper has been, and in this country, people, and obviously Espanyol, with the greatest of respect, away from them being a Spanish side and assuming they're a highly based possession side, you know, you can imagine they don't have the quality of players that some of the bigger teams have. So you could attribute his pass completion rate and it being negatively affected by his long pass accuracy, which stands at only 44%, and the medium stands at 97.4%. He actually has 100% for short passing, which again, context would need to apply, but that tells me he's confident playing short passes and is, you know, comfortable as offering himself as an option, actually, when the centre-halves have the ball. How many times have we seen David Raya when having to do traditional goalkeeping fly off his line, but on a regular basis, he's almost like having 12 players on the pitch or an extra centre-half, as we would have seen, you know, following his first appearance in the 23-24 campaign, you know, as I said, he maintained positively at 82.5% save percentage. He also, on the topic of crosses, had, when you look at per 90, his impressive cross claims stood at 2.14, which is and he has a 16.1% cross prevention rate, which obviously is quite aligned to David Raya, people. In fact, it's just short of, it's just ahead of David Raya. David Raya is at 13%. Now, a lot of that could be attributed to, generally, Espanyol having to do more defending than Arsenal Football Club. He's only played half a season, really. It took him a while to break in at Espanyol. Currently, he had 21 appearances in total within the league, I believe, people, don't correct me or correct me. You know, Garcia conceded eight goals, while Raya let in 31 from a total of 41 games in all competitions. Obviously, Raya's played more. In terms of clean sheets, we all know Raya won the Golden Glove and, you know, Juan Garcia has eight to his name, which is decent. And if you look in Spain, Garcia ensured that 12 of Espanyol's opponents from his 21 games played did not score. Now, he can't just claim particular credit for that, but you get the point. Where you look at his shots saved or shots faced by a goalkeeper, you know, his shots saved slash conceded goals, it actually shows in the Segunda Division and in the Copa del Rey that there is something to work with, essentially, where Garcia has concerned people. And then you look at certain things like his pass, his pass to teammates, statistics and things you could see loosely while he's been flagged on Arsenal's radar. Now, when I look at certain points, many people would say, why are we spending 21.5 million on a goalkeeper who is going to be the number two at present? Whether he wants to kick on and try and take Raya's spot, we hope so. But evidently, at the point of entry to Arsenal Football Club, he will be the number two. So some would say, well, 21.5 million definitely in today's day and age isn't the biggest of figure. Does it make sense? Could we have sourced a homegrown keeper that helps us with the homegrown rulings available at a cheaper rate? I'm not sure. On the topic of him being the number two at 23 years of age and just really being exposed to senior football of a sense, how long would he want to be our number two goalie without either having ambitions to, you know, take Raya's spot or move elsewhere? We've seen quite the turnover at Arsenal Football Club in goal with Renison, with Raya, with Leno, with, you know, with Ramsdale and so on and so forth will be here all day. You know, you never know. Mikel Arteta has said once upon a time he wouldn't be afraid to rotate goalkeepers and change in game, which I don't necessarily believe. And it does beg the question, could this guy be our very own Ortega if David Raya was our very own Edison? At the time of making this vid, he's played 30 times for Espanyol, conceding 22 goals and keeping 13 clean sheets. He also only has four La Liga appearances, people. So that is something along the lines of 34 appearances at senior level in the league and also in his career at Espanyol today. Eight of those came in the Copa del Rey. So God forbid if Raya was injured, is he ready? Is he experienced enough to step in? I'd imagine so because Arteta and Edu and those that make the decision are keen to put the money down. But as a fan, this is what I'm looking at. And again, he did break through Espanyol side midway through the season. Now that could be coincidental. Everybody has to start somewhere. But at the same time, why is it taking him so long? And he is relatively inexperienced as a player and obviously a goalkeeper, which 23 is basically 13 keepers. They live longer than cats, essentially, people. But I like what I see from the vague analysis that I've done. I like what he could bring to the table. I like the ethos. You can see how he ties into the team. He's 23 years of age, so he's impressionable. Inaki Kanye did identify David Raya. So if he's from the same school of thought, then why not people? Playing devil's advocate, though, on the topic of the goalkeeping coach with the turnover and simply put whoever identified Runnison, is it something we should trust? I'm not too sure. We all know, you know, Ramsdale lasted two to three years. You know, Matt Turner was here a year. If that Matt Ryan's loan wasn't made permanently, will we finally have long term stability? And it goes back to what I just said. How long would Garcia, at 23 years of age, who's spoken about as potentially being a Spanish international one day, be content? You never know. He could one day take Raya's spot. You just never know people. But I have a duty to consider all of these things for you. I do think in short, in theory, provided we get a fee for Ramsdale, this deal allows us to sign a goalkeeper who knows he's the second choice, probably earns considerably apologies less than Aaron Ramsdale's 100 grand a week. We all know this move hinges on Aaron Ramsdale actually exiting the club people. We all know Wolves have inquired about Ramsdale. He's been linked with Bournemouth, Southampton and a bunch of other clubs. We've rejected a loan offer from both Wolves and Ajax. So Ramsdale's future is far from decided. When he leaves and in what capacity he leaves, I'm not sure. You know, if he does go on loan, there's a reality that at some point next summer, provided that wherever Ramsdale goes, the team doesn't buy him, that you have David Raya on the books, Aaron Ramsdale on the books, Mr. Garcia on the books, and probably, in my opinion, a third choice goalkeeper could and probably should arrive at this football club before deadline day. So yeah, I like what I see. I think he's got, you know, he seems quite decent in claiming crosses. He seems, you know, quite good at reactionary saves. He makes strong saves. He seems like a mad guy. You know, all keepers are mad. I think he uses his arms well to limit the spaces when an opportunity for an opponent presents itself to have an effort at goal. I think he's a quick decision maker. I think there's a lot of things he could work on, but I think there's a lot to like about him and I can see the intangibles as to why Arsenal Football Club are looking at him. You lot let me know your thoughts because undoubtedly you know a lot more than me. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. Turn on your notification bells. Check out the rest of the videos. On that note, people deluded, I'm out. Bye.