Another article from The Athletic on the possibility of Raya coming in from Brentford. Some of the more interesting paragraphs copied in below:
Raya started all of Brentford’s matches this season and, according to Opta, made more saves (154) than any other goalkeeper in the top flight, recorded the second-highest number of catches (51) after Emiliano Martinez and kept 12 clean sheets.
Spurs have held discussions with Raya’s camp over a potential move. Although he feels ready to make the step up to a bigger club, the situation is far from simple.
Raya joined Brentford from Blackburn Rovers for £3million in July 2019 and he signed an extension in October 2020. His deal expires in 12 months and he has rejected two new contract offers from Brentford that would have made him one of the highest-paid players in their history. In an interview with The Athletic in February, he said “that they weren’t the offers we were looking for” and “I want to play in Europe and fight for a title”.
Thomas Frank has publicly spoken about Raya’s chances of leaving and given him a valuation of “at least £40million”. Despite only having a year left on his contract, Brentford are adamant they will not sell Raya for anything less.
If Spurs find the cash to sign Raya, he will instantly elevate their ability to play out from the back. Finding a new goalkeeper who can pass the ball will be extremely important as they try to transition to a more possession-based style under Postecoglou. Raya grew up on the outskirts of Barcelona and he would spend hours as a child playing futsal with his older brother, Oscar, on a concrete pitch next to their house. This is part of the reason he is so comfortable passing with both feet under pressure from opposition strikers.
Raya’s passing grabs everybody’s attention and it means his shot-stopping goes under the radar. We know Raya makes a lot of saves but by using the goals prevented metric, which compares how many goals a goalkeeper actually conceded versus the number they were expected to based on the quality of the shot, we can get a better idea of how truly effective he is. Raya stopped nearly six more goals than he was expected to, which comfortably puts him in the top bracket in the division.
The obvious area of his game that needs to be improved is dealing with shots from long distance. Brentford conceded 10 goals from outside the box this season, which was the third-worst record in the league after Nottingham Forest (15) and Leicester City (18).
Brentford away for the first match isn't ideal, especially as they play so effectively on the counter.
However, Toney will still be banned at that stage, so it's a good time to play them in that sense.