OTD Almunia signs new deal

On 3 April 2008, goalkeeper Manuel Almunia signed a contract extension with Arsenal in the hope that he would finish his career in north London.

It’s hard to believe that, at one point, Almunia was Arsenal’s first choice goalkeeper. Although, considering at the moment Petr Cech’s injured and David Ospina is the next best keeper we have at the club who’s not on loan, maybe it’s not that hard after all.

Arsenal signed Almunia from Celta Vigo in 2004. He’d already been on loan to Eibar, Recreativo and Albacete over the past three years.

He was made Arsenal captain in 2008 and in 2009 kept eight consecutive clean sheets at home, which was an Arsenal record.

The Spaniard, who was never capped for his country, spent eight years at Arsenal, making 109 league appearances, despite becoming renowned for his goalkeeping blunders in later years and dropping to third choice goalkeeper behind Wojciech Szczesny and Łukasz Fabiański.

Almunia went on loan to West Ham in 2011 where he made just four league appearances before signing for Watford.

He retired in 2014.