Best deal since Timber: Arsenal closing in on £25m star after Zubimendi

Arsenal’s summer spending spree is seemingly set to commence.

On Saturday morning, Fabrizio Romano reported that Martín Zubimendi “has now verbally agreed” to join Arsenal, claiming that the Gunners intend to trigger his release clause, which stands at €60m (£51m).

This deal has been in the pipeline for a while, with David Ornstein of The Athletic reporting back in January that they were “pursuing a deal” to sign the Spanish international, describing him as a “long-term target”.

Nevertheless, this is set to be just the start of Mikel Arteta’s mass summer squad rebuild, so are the Gunners also close to signing another La Liga star, who’d be the club’s best value-for-money signing since Jurriën Timber?

Latest on Arsenal’s transfer search

According to a report by Miguel Delaney of the Independent, Arsenal are ‘close to signing’ Espanyol goalkeeper Joan García.

As noted by James McNicholas and David Ornstein of The Athletic, Arsenal spent all of last summer pursuing the 24-year-old, having “identified” the Spaniard as the perfect player to provide competition for his compatriot David Raya, but Espanyol were unwilling to negotiate any lower than his €30m (£25m) release clause.

The bad news for Arsenal is that the Blanquiazules are on course to avoid relegation, García’s release clause would reportedly have dropped to just £12.6m had the Catalan club finished in the bottom three, but Tom Allnutt of the Times still believes the Gunners plan to finalise this deal.

So, how will García improve Arteta’s squad, and will he be their latest bargain signing?

Arsenal’s best value-for-money signings

Analyst Ben Mattinson labels García an “exciting goalkeeper”, praising his “cross claiming” and “composure on the ball”.

Meantime, Sive Vishwa of Breaking the Lines describes him as “dependable and aggressive”, forecasting that he will become “one of the best goalkeepers” of his generation.

Thus, at just £25m, García looks set to prove an absolute bargain, but who are some of Arsenal’s best value-for-money signings of the Arteta-era?

Timber in particular stands out as an excellent value-for-money signing, arriving from Ajax for just £34m two summers ago.

As outlined by Alex Howell of BBC Sport, the Dutchman is in the running to be named Arsenal’s player of the season, a remarkable achievement considering he played just 147 minutes during his first campaign in North London, suffering an ACL rupture on the opening day of the season against Nottingham Forest.

So, will García prove to be the Gunners’ latest bargain?

Well, for him to become that, he’ll need to play matches, and this won’t be easy considering current number one Raya has been “really impressive” according to Arteta, so let’s compare the two Spanish shot-stoppers.

As the table outlines, García’s statistics this season do compare favourably to Raya, made all the more impressive by the fact he is playing for an Espanyol side battling to avoid relegation from La Liga, having been promoted via the Segunda División play-offs last June.

Raya’s statistics are superior when it comes to high claims and passes completed, but García’s post-shot expected goals – goals allowed figure of +9.3, meaning he’s prevented over nine more goals than expected, is certainly eye-catching.

Across Europe’s top-five leagues, of all 204 goalkeepers who have featured this season, García ranks sixth for this metric, behind only Yehvann Diouf (Reims), Yahia Fofana (Angers), Vanja Milinković-Savić (Torino), Đorđe Petrović​​​​​​​ (Strasbourg) and Donovan Léon (Auxerre), with Raya down at 131st, according to FBref.com.

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So, García will arrive in North London confident he can usurp his fellow Spaniard in the pecking order, suggesting he could prove to be fantastic value for money.

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