Clrnc I haven't seen you underrate or not rate a player that's linked to us this much before. I do remember a few times you said you had a close friend supporting Brentford that isn't complimentary of his abilities so if that's correct I do understand.
Almost.
Two of my best mates are Brentford fans, and we all take an interest in each other's teams, so I've seen enough of Raya and his errors to form my own opinion of him. Someone was mentioning about Aaron conceding that goal in the EL from distance, conveniently forgetting that Aaron was probably more or less where he was supposed to be and the guy hit that ball so very perfectly to beat him. It was a much better strike than the one that did Dave Seaman in '95 and nobody came away from that game going, "I know, lets bin big Dave..."
David Raya got done at Wembley in a much worse way 3 years ago and it cost Brentford promotion. That's not the only example I've seen of him, "from bean to cup you fuck up" for the Bees, but I can't think of the specific examples now. Though I do remember that two seasons ago, our own Emile beat Raya with a shot from around the edge of the box I was very surprised he managed to find the corner with (I was right behind the line of the shot as Emile took it). I do appreciate though, that this kind of finish is something of a trademark for the Smith, so I'm not sure how much blame to put on Raya!
My general point is that I don't think Raya is significantly better than Ramsdale to justify the outlay on him and if people think we're getting a goalkeeper who is going to come in and not drop absolute clangers, you might be in for a surprise. I also think we've all seen countless keepers down the years come to this club and not be able to dominate the box, we now have one and yet we're looking at signing a keeper who, at 5"11 is less likely to do that and that gives me the heebie jeebies. On top of that, chasing this guy having just tied Ramsdale down to a new deal reeks of mixed messaging as well as slightly muddled thinking.
But as I've said up above, I am prepared to be wrong (and I will of course get behind the guy whenever he plays for us, if he does) and, as Big Willie says
Big Willie guess you just got to trust that Arteta knows what he's doing.
I guess that's it.