As stated in an earlier post on this blog, the World Cup participants were given an extended vacation to put themselves in good shape and will return on dates you can find here.
But Leno Bernd is not at the World Cup, neither has he been seen it training. Why is this so? Did Papastathopoulos not resume training as soon as he was signed? Okay read on to see why Leno has not started training with Arsenal.
Arsenal announced the signing of a goalkeeper named Bernd Leno about two weeks ago and after his unveiling, he has not been spotted around the club, not even at London Colney. The reason for this is nothing strange.
The club had to let him return home to get well prepared before joining his teammates as he had not totally put things in place before completing a transfer to the Emirates Stadium.
The Spanish goalkeeper who joined from Bayern Leverkusen for a fee believed to be around 24 million euros will bid farewell to his former environment and begin training by Monday, 9th July. As we gathered, he paid a visit to his former club’s training ground to say a final goodbye on Friday.
Leno is a goalkeeper with class. One expected to help Arsenal cut down on the number of goals they concede (last season's was so ridiculous). With Petr Cech being the number one before his arrival, we have not had it nice in goal. A team that does not score many goals should at least try to concede less but that was not the case for us last season. Cech, though highly experienced committed blunders that cost us so much points. With Leno around, that should be a thing of the past.
The 26-year-old is expected to take over as first choice goalkeeper from Cech when the new season begins. This is still something we are waiting on since it is still unconfirmed by the club.
Whatever it is, Cech seems to be ready for the challenge. The Czech international turned down an offer from Napoli this summer, stating that he will remain and fight for his place. This is good after all. Having such calibre of goalkeepers will cause a great and positive competition which is what any seriois team needs. The replacement for a classy player should be as good as the one he is replacing.
As for David Ospina, we still do not know what the future holds for him. Will he remain or be sold out? That we will get to see by the time he resumes from his extended vacation owing from Colombia's participation at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Leno's availability y tomorrow will mean that he will be eligible to fly down to Singapore with some of his teammates on July 23. Arsenal will face Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint Germain in the International Champions Cup on 26th and 28th July respectively, before returning to lock horns with Chelsea (July 1) in Dublin, then Sevilla (July 4).
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