Gillingham goalkeeper Tomas Holy has admitted he laughed when he heard the reports of Arsenal interest in him last month, and says he doesn’t know how the rumours started.

Back in July, the Mirror reported that Arsenal were among four clubs to show an interest in the goalkeeper, and Gillingham were apparently preparing to lose their number one before the window closed.

Asked about the story by reporters in his home country of the Czech Republic, Holy admitted the story never really had anything to it.

“When I learned of this, I called it a weekend joke,” Holy told ceskatelevize.cz. “I asked my agent, David Bald, where the story came from and what it means. Even he didn’t know. No one knows where that information came from.

“In addition, after buying Bernd Leno and with Arsenal’s goalkeeping situation, I couldn’t imagine why a team like Arsenal would have taken me right now. If they had five goalkeepers and four were injured and no one else wanted to join, okay, but I don’t know what would have to happen now for the Londoners to sign a third league goalie.”

Holy went on to explain that there was reportedly some genuine interest from the Championship in him. Until one of them makes an official offer though, he insisted that he just wants to focus on his current club.

“I know people, people know me, I have English lessons, I do not have to move and worry,” he said. “I can fully concentrate on the season. Now I’m going to do everything to get back to the Championship next summer. I would like to play in a higher league once more.”

To sum up, it seems like Arsenal’s inclusion in this story was nothing more than a Mirror fantasy. It’s no real surprise to hear they’ve thrown the Gunners’ name into the mix just to get a few more hits, as most supporters suspect this is common practice for the paper.

We said at the time that it was unlikely Unai Emery’s transfer team would sign another goalkeeper, and so it proved. Instead, Arsenal ended up moving a couple on, with David Ospina and Joao Virginia leaving the club.