With the departure of Mohamed Elneny this summer, Arsenal’s three longest serving players are Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah and Karl Hein. Despite being at the club for six years, Hein has featured only once for Arsenal, the EFL Cup Third Round loss to Brighton last season. He also managed a very brief stint at Reading in the winter transfer window of the 2021/22 season.

Hein was among the list of players that were scheduled to be released, but he was retained by the club, signing a contract extension, while the likes of James Hillson, Ovie Ejeheri, Hubert Graczyk and Noah Cooper were released. Arsenal currently has two senior goalkeepers that are currently involved with their national teams in the European Championships. David Raya joined the club on loan from Brentford last season, and it is widely believed that Edu Gaspar and the negotiation team would activate the £27 million clause to bring the Spaniard to the club, which will signal the end of Aaron Ramsdale’s time with the club, especially how he confirmed that he wouldn’t want to be on the dugout for the entirety of a campaign again.

So if Arsenal retain Raya’s services and successfully sell Ramsdale for big bucks, a goalkeeping sized hole will be left gaping and we will need someone to fill it. Can that person be Karl Hein? Word on the street is that Arsenal are keeping tabs with Espanyol’s 23-year-old goalkeeper, Joan Garcia, and he’s someone that would certainly be content to bide his time on the bench, while hoping to get games in the domestic competitions.

Hein, 22, has the likes of Alexei Rojas and Brian Okonkwo to contend with at Under-21 level, and Arsenal has also signed a youngster, Lucas Nygaard, from Viking club, FC Nordsjaelland, so Hein will want to edge towards going out on loan to gain experience. At 22, he has already featured in 30 games for Estonia, and has been on the end of some bashing in European qualifiers.

It will be interesting to see how Mikel Arteta manages the goalkeeping situation this summer, and if the club eventually decides to sell Ramsdale, let’s hope its for megabucks.

Sayonara.