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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport

Arsenal boss Unai Emery dismisses Keylor Navas transfer link

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery today dismissed reports linking the club with a January move for Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

The Gunners were reported to have made a £14million bid for Navas, who has fallen out of favour at the Santiago Bernabeu following Thibaut Courtois’s arrival from Chelsea.

However, Emery insisted he is happy with his current trio of Bernd Leno, Petr Cech and Emiliano Martinez.

Asked if rumours of a bid were genuine, Emery said: “Not true. We never speak about one goalkeeper because I think - and it’s true - we are very happy with the three goalkeepers we have now. We’ve never spoken about Keylor Navas.”

Emery was speaking ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Blackpool, a game which Shkodran Mustafi will miss as he continues to struggle with a hamstring injury.

Mesut Ozil is also unlikely to feature having failed to train today as he battles a back problem while Konstantinos Mavropanos (groin) and Emile Smith Rowe (hip) took part in the session.

Emery, who left Paris Saint-Germain to replace Arsene Wenger last summer, admitted he has never been to Blackpool before but revealed he was aware of the club’s plight with fan protests against the club’s owners set to take place this weekend.

“No, [I’ve never been to Blackpool]. I know it’s 90km from Liverpool and I know they’ve played in the Premier League.

“When we played here against them in the Carabao Cup, we knew this history of this club. They aren’t in the best moment for that. But here against us at the Emirates they played very competitively and gave us a lot of difficult moments.

“I have a big respect for each team and I know they are one team now not in the best moment but the respect is there because it’s a very big opportunity for them to play against us with their supporters and live this important moment, finding the chances against us.”

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