Arsene Wenger has admitted it was difficult to convince David Ospina to stay at Arsenal.

The Colombian keeper looked certain to leave Arsenal for more first-team football this summer. However, somewhat surprisingly, he’s still at the Emirates Stadium. Ospina himself dropped several hints throughout the summer that he wanted to leave.

Turkish club Fenerbahce were heavily linked, as well as MLS side LA Galaxy. It seems Arsene Wenger, though, went through the effort of convincing Ospina to remain at the club.

“It was not easy to convince Ospina to stay, but he will play games and fight with Petr Cech to start,” Wenger said, reports the Express. “And anyway, we play other competitions. He wants to play in a World Cup year.”

This could be seen as a surprising move, as Ospina hasn’t solidified himself as first choice at Arsenal despite being there for three years now. Petr Cech is still the number one at the club and Ospina has yet to show the consistency and quality to suggest he can overtake him.

It’s likely we’ll see Ospina play in the Europa League and domestic cups this season, before probably pushing to leave again in the summer when it becomes apparent he won’t be first choice.

Meanwhile, Arsenal have no real heir to Cech, having sold Wojciech Szczesny to Juventus. Ospina is a decent cup keeper, but you’d have to question if he’s worth all the effort required to keep him at the club.