There are back-up keepers but also a record transfer and a Manchester United jewel among the Premier League summer signings we have still yet to see debut.
Neto (Arsenal)
Considering the Brazilian promised to “give everything for Arsenal” when he joined, supporters will be in for a treat when Neto is rolled out for the FA Cup third round. It seems unlikely his “dream” involved forming his own grooves on the bench but the life of a back-up goalkeeper chose him.
Aaron Ramsdale needed replacing and his opportunities last season are instructive: 11 appearances, of which six were after early September, with a further three of those coming against Brentford.
With David Raya’s feet firmly settled under the Emirates table after his initial loan spell – and Neto being cup-tied in the Carabao – some already meagre minutes as Arsenal’s stand-in keeper are only further diminished. But that debut in a chastening defeat away at lower-league opposition in January will be special.
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Igor Thiago (Brentford)
Only Tottenham have scored more Premier League goals this season than Brentford, but while Dominic Solanke has made a telling contribution as his new club’s record signing, the Bees have reached remarkable levels of proficiency entirely without theirs.
Thomas Frank is “looking forward to getting him in the team, to have extra firepower up front,” but Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo have hardly struggled in Igor Thiago’s absence.
The Bees announced his £30m arrival in January and lost the forward to a knee injury in July. Between his new teammates embracing the goal burden and Ivan Toney’s risible form in the second half of last season, Thiago should not actually feel too much pressure to hit the ground running.
Gustavo Nunes (Brentford)
Flying in under Thiago’s radar was Gustavo Nunes, a fellow Brazilian signed from Gremio for a not inconsiderable £10m. The pair have bonded in no small part because of injuries, which have stunted matters on the playing side but at least allowed for time to acclimatise to a new country away from the spotlight.
There is hope from Frank that their relationship “will also materialise on the pitch”, with the trickery of winger Nunes complementing the physical, aggressive centre-forward stylings of Thiago. Their respective appearances in a recent in-house friendly suggest that theory could be put to the test soon.
Omari Kellyman (Chelsea)
“I’m buzzing to have put on the shirt and can’t wait to get started,” said a teenager seemingly blissfully unaware of his role as a pawn in some PSR-taking antics this summer.
The story is common knowledge. Aston Villa signed Kellyman for £600,000 in March 2022. He played 148 first-team minutes, the vast majority of which came in a Europa Conference League qualifying play-off. His value nevertheless soared by more than 3,000% when Chelsea came calling in June 2024 – purely coincidentally a) at the same time Ian Maatsen was traded between the two clubs and b) in time for it to appear on the relevant financial accounts.
A long-term hamstring injury has largely spared Kellyman the ignominy of being a £19m signing reserved purely for U21 duty and allowed everyone to keep up the pretence that he might have played. Mind you, with his Europa Conference League pedigree the continent’s giants would have been quaking.
Asmir Begovic (Everton)
Fair play to Begovic, who played ten games in two seasons after joining Everton as a free agent in 2021, then moved to QPR and played all but their final match of the 2023/24 Championship campaign, before returning to Goodison Park to not play at all. Keep up the hustle, fella.
Armando Broja (Everton)
The next locker along at Finch Farm belongs to Broja. Probably. Not sure really. It definitely isn’t Oumar Niasse’s. Sean Dyche might not even believe in woke nonsense like lockers or personal possessions.
Broja would at least be used to having some first-team facilities taped off after spending a short time among Enzo Maresca’s exiled few at the start of the season. That cannot have come as a surprise for a player who could most recently be found on Fulham’s bench.
The Albanian is yet to make it that far for Everton due to an Achilles injury which scuppered a proposed move to Ipswich but the Toffees were ready to sanction with a £30m buy option as long as Chelsea paid his wages until he regained fitness. All parties will hope that direct debit can end soon.
Michael Golding (Leicester City)
In some more understated summer asset-shifting, Chelsea shipped Michael Golding over to Leicester for £5m soon after signing £30m Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
The 18-year-old is “just loving life at Leicester” and likely arrived with no guarantees over game time as a player with one senior career minute dropped into a Premier League relegation battle with a promoted club under a new manager.
Leny Yoro (Manchester United)
In Old Trafford terms, following in the footsteps of Wilfried Zaha is not to be advised. The bar is certainly low for Leny Yoro as a Manchester United player who never featured for the manager who signed him.
Erik ten Hag cited Yoro as a player he needed time and patience to “build” but fate dictated that the Dutchman expended both virtues by the time those foundations could be properly laid. The centre-half was injured within half an hour of his first game in pre-season, a week after joining, and has only recently returned to full training.
Those tantalising clips of Ruben Amorim’s first session with his new squad included a generous helping of Yoro footage; it can be fairly safely assumed that a £58.9m defender might be prominent in plans for both the immediate and long-term future.
John Ruddy (Newcastle United)
Eddie Howe felt Ruddy “has a huge amount of experience and adds a level of support and competition that we need”. Newcastle have four other first-team keepers so the 38-year-old better have plenty of “support” to give.
Wes Foderingham (West Ham United)
Thomas Kaminski is the only goalkeeper to ever concede more goals in a single Premier League season (85) than Foderingham, who shipped 79 as both surrendered themselves to Premier League relegation in 2023/24.
Except Foderingham decided he was no longer about that life and the 33-year-old instead parlayed some historically dreadful numbers into his transition to full-time third-choice goalkeeper. But he might have made a mistake picking West Ham: their form and Alphonse Areola’s recent absence has promoted Foderingham to the bench, perilously close to the actual action.
Bastien Meupiyou (Wolves)
Even if the 18-year-old himself had not been swept up by the current centre-half injury crisis engulfing Wolves, it seems unlikely that Bastien Meupiyou would have been deemed a possible solution.
Wolves rate the Frenchman particularly highly – sporting director Matt Hobbs waxed lyrical about his “incredibly high ceiling” a couple of months ago – but these are not conducive circumstances into which a new player should be introduced.
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