Blackburn Rovers set to receive millions from Arsenal | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers are in line for a £5 million cash injection if Arsenal activate their buy-option to bring goalkeeper David Raya to the club on a permanent basis this summer.

It's been over half a decade since the Spanish shot-stopper pulled on a Blackburn shirt. Raya was sold to Brentford in the summer of 2019 for around £3 million, as per the Lancashire Telegraph.

He came through the club's youth setup before graduating to the Rovers first team, and now, five years on from his departure, he has won the Golden Glove in the Premier League for the Gunners, who finished second in the league, just two points behind winners Manchester City.

Currently Raya is on loan at Arsenal. They agreed a temporary deal with the Bees worth £3 million, which included an option to buy him for £27 million, as per Sky Sports.

Everyone expects the former Blackburn man to return to the Emirates Stadium in the summer window, having ousted England keeper Aaron Ramsdale for his number one spot in Mikel Arteta's team.

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has said that the deal has been set to take place for months, and that it has been verbally agreed between the two London-based clubs that it will happen.

If/when (probably when) Brentford receive the agreed £27 million fee for the 28-year-old, Blackburn will financially benefit from the move, according to recent reports.

Blackburn to receive £5 million from David Raya, Arsenal, Brentford deal

The Lancashire Telegraph have said that the clauses inserted into the deal which initially saw Raya move down to London could net Rovers around £5 million from the £27 million move to the Emirates Stadium.

Even though all the reports suggest that it's a near certainty that the 28-year-old will be an Arsenal player again next season, the player himself is not putting across this message publicly.

"It’s not up to me, the contract," the glovesman said to Mail Online. "It’s up to the club and to Mikel. If my performances have been good enough then hopefully they will offer me a long-term contract.

"I am just focused on the present. I don’t want to think too much about the future. I just want to focus on training and the game. Of course, I would love to be here next season and, if that’s the case, it would be amazing, a dream come true to sign for this club.

Raya also touched on his time in Lancashire, and the initial struggles he faced. He said: "Coming as a 16-year-old kid, I left everything behind — family and friends.

"To come to Blackburn at such a young age was such an opportunity that I couldn’t let it pass. My head was telling me to do it and, if it didn’t work, I could always go back home. But my head was also telling me: 'You have to make it, you have to make it'.

"I knew I had to give the best of me and here I am right now. One of my dreams was to play in the Premier League. Through working hard and giving my all in every training session and every game, I got the opportunity in the end."

Blackburn need to use money earned in the summer wisely

With the money that they are set to receive from Raya's Arsenal deal, and the £15-20 million that they want for star forward Sammie Szmodics, Blackburn are going to be very much in the green this summer.

Add on top of that the fee they received from Crystal Palace for the sale of Adam Wharton, and they should have little excuses for not spending in the upcoming transfer window.

But it's all well and good having the financial resources, they now need to use them properly.

There have been a lot of changes in the boardroom at Ewood Park as of late, with club secretary Ian Silvester being one of the latest of the higher-ups to lose their job.

This was in part because of the catastrophe that was their attempt to sign American forward Duncan McGuire in the January window. They had the paperwork all done and ready to send off to complete the move, but they clicked save instead of submitting them to the EFL, so the transfer didn't go through in time.

The next few months are a good opportunity for the club to get back to winning ways, and that will start with how they go about their transfer activity. Failure to use their resources properly could lead to very big problems for them.