Wigan Athletic goalkeeper Sam Tickle reportedly turned down the opportunity to join Arsenal on transfer deadline day.
The summer window was one of unprecedented change in between the sticks for Arsenal, who unsurprisingly took up their option to convert David Raya's Brentford loan into a permanent move.
With Mikel Arteta showing no sign of demoting Raya from his number one slot, Aaron Ramsdale left for Southampton on deadline day, a few hours before Neto joined on loan from Bournemouth.
The Gunners also saw third-choice shot-stopper Karl Hein head out to Real Valladolid on loan, while Arthur Okonkwo left as a free agent to pen a permanent contract with Wrexham.
The latter was replaced by the duo of Tommy Setford and Lucas Nygaard, but Arsenal were also hopeful of bringing in a new third-choice goalkeeper, an endeavour which ended in failure.
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Tickle 'was not interested' in Arsenal third-choice role
A reunion with Wolverhampton Wanderers' Daniel Bentley - formerly of the Arsenal academy system - fell through, supposedly seeing the Gunners explore a move for Wigan's Tickle instead.
However, according to The Sun, the 22-year-old turned down a marquee move to the Premier League, as he was not interested in playing third fiddle to Raya and Neto in the 2024-25 season.
The England Under-21 international has risen through the Wigan youth ranks to become their first-choice goalkeeper, starting all five of their games this season after keeping 15 clean sheets in 46 League One matches last term.
As a result, Tickle was understandably not prepared to sacrifice regular minutes to sit on the bench at Arsenal, especially at this embryonic stage of his career when he has just broken into the England Under-21 squad.
Tickle was not the only goalkeeper Arsenal tried and failed to sign this summer, as they were also targeting Espanyol's Joan Garcia, only to be put off by the Spanish club's financial demands.
Was Arsenal's transfer window a success?
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The summer 2024 window would ostensibly be the one where Arsenal signed a new marquee centre-forward, but the Gunners ironically strengthened in every other position and left the number nine slot as it was.
Neto is an experienced option in between the sticks, Riccardo Calafiori has shown plenty of promise thus far, and Raheem Sterling under Arteta is an exciting prospect.
However, there are fears that Mikel Merino's shoulder fracture could sideline him for a couple of months, and it is difficult to argue that Arsenal may be in a slightly weaker position than they were at the start of the window.
Injuries to Merino and Gabriel Jesus have not helped in that regard, but loaning out Fabio Vieira and selling fellow playmaker Emile Smith Rowe was a huge gamble, one that only time will tell whether it has paid off.
Of course, Arteta may have enough faith in the likes of Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly to fill the voids if need be, but heading into the imminent North London derby - which Declan Rice is suspended for - the Gunners' ranks have a bit of a thin feel about them.
Ben Knapton
