Report: Arsenal have triggered extension to Matt Macey deal

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Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Macey has signed a contract extension to remain at the club until next summer. 

It is being reported by Football.London that Arsenal triggered their option to extend Macey’s contract by another year. 

The report comes just one month after the same source said he was on his way out. Football.London reported in mid-May that the Gunners would not be agreeing an extension and the 6ft 7ins stopper would be on his way out. 

That no longer appears to be the case and the giant goalie looks set to continue as the club’s third-choice goalkeeper next season. 

Arsenal snapped up the goalkeeper from Bristol Rovers in 2013 with the hope of him potentially becoming a first-team option going forward. He has since spent time on loan at Accrington Stanley, Luton Town, and Plymouth Argyle, where he was the first-choice goalkeeper for most of the 2018-19 campaign. 

But he has only featured for the Arsenal first-team on two occasions. He played against Norwich City in an EFL Cup match and Red Star Belgrade in the Europa League in 2017. 

That second match saw him impress Arsene Wenger, who told The Independent how impressed he was with a player of Macey’s size who could remain so agile. 

“I think he took his chance very well. He is huge, he is quick, and you don’t often find that combination, of that size and that speed. He is very agile.

“Matt came to us late, normally goalkeepers come at 16, but he came at 20 basically. But he is very focused, and that is what I was pleased to give him a chance tonight, and he took it.”

Macey will no doubt be hoping to one day force his way into the Arsenal first-team, but at 25-years-old, it could be that time has already passed. 

But there’s no reason why he cannot have a similar career to Stuart Taylor, the perennial Arsenal back-up who spent eight years at the club under Wenger.