Icelandic Goalkeeper Runarsson Steps In A Costumed Arsenal Song

JAKARTA - Runar Alex Runarsson is expected to complete his transfer to Arsenal on Monday afternoon local time. He can make his debut against Leicester City on Wednesday morning CET.

The goalkeeper with the Iceland passport arrived in England last weekend. He immediately rushed to Arsenal's London training base Colney to complete his transfer from French club Dijon for more than £ 1 million, and meet his new partner.

Runasson completed his medical in France on Thursday before traveling to London and spending the weekend training.

Arsenal hope to announce Runasson's transfer on Monday afternoon (local time), with the final documents being finalized by the club's lawyers.

If everything goes according to plan, the 25-year-old goalkeeper will immediately be included in the squad for the away match against Leicester City in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

Arsenal are targeting Runarsson to replace Emiliano Martinez, who moved to Aston Villa for a transfer value of 20 million pounds (around Rp377 billion) last week.

The Icelandic national team goalkeeper is a recommendation from Inaki Cana, the goalkeeping coach for Arteta's squad.

Cana worked with Runasson during his time with FC Nordsjaelland from 2015 to 2018, and Arteta admitted last week that Cana played a big role in Arsenal's search for a replacement for Martinez.

"As I expected from my (coaching) staff," the Spaniard said as quoted by Antara, Monday.

"When it comes to goalkeeping, he (Cana) has a big say in how we will apply our methodology, how we will train them and how we will treat the goalkeeping position in the short, medium and long term."

"It's clear in the end I make the decisions, but it's very important that the people around me, who have clearer criteria and specificities than I do, that I really listen to them and try to follow their intuition."

"I have great confidence in Inaki (Cana), just like the rest of the staff who are here. I will take him to the medical department, with the physiotherapist, the kit officer, every department that's here. They have more expertise than me."