Arsenal have had a £6million bid for Cardiff keeper David Marshall rejected according to the Mail.
Their report is extremely brief, but Arsenal’s interest in Marshall has been well documented, and the Gunners do seem to like the Scottish stopper. The report states it is an opening offer from the Gunners, and a recent report in the Telegraph stated the Gunners would need to bid up to £15million to land one of the Premier League’s best goalkeepers from last season.
Whilst Marshall’s top level experience is limited, his talent can’t be questioned – and he had a brilliant first season in the Premier League last campaign. At 27 he has plenty of years left in him and would be worth investment. Does Marshall constitute the £15 million pound price tag? Having joined Cardiff from Norwich in 2009, Marshall particularly impressed last season making a serious of seemingly impossible saves possible. Not only was he undoubtedly Cardiff’s player of the season but on 21 April 2014, Marshall was named in Sky Sports’ Premier League Team of the season. Also at the tender age of 29 Marshall has a wealth of experience playing for the likes of Celtic, Norwich and now Cardiff. He is starting to peak but has at least a good 7 years left at the top level. £15 million is however a large sum of money to be paying for an arguably second choice goalkeeper and I feel that it would be better spent on other areas of the team. If an agreement could be reached for £10million or less, it would be worth it in my opinion.
Arsenal have already been linked to a whole host of goalkeepers this summer as they look to replace Lukas Fabianski. Premier League experience seems a priority with interest believed to be held in Asmir Begovic and John Ruddy as well as Marshall.
Meanwhile Laurent Koscielny seems to be on the same wavelength as the fans, lets just hope Arsene is too: “We’ll need a goalkeeper, a right-back, a midfielder and a striker,” Koscielny said on Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press at France’s pre-World Cup training camp. Well Kos it seems like you’ve been drawing up plans like the rest of us. Go tell Griezmann and Benzema to join us.