I'm delighted with the news that Arsenal.com have officially confirmed the signing of Ospina from Nice. While Fabianski had worked hard to finally overcome a reputation of being prone to making mistakes, I believe that replacing him with Ospina represents an improvement in the squad. It remains to be seen how Ospina will respond to playing second fiddle (initially at least) to Szczesny, but he is three years younger than Fabianski and performed admirably for Colombia in the World Cup.
For me, the Sanchez and Ospina signings signal a change in demographic in the Arsenal squad. It had seemed to me that, in recent years, Wenger has been working to create a squad with a British core, supplemented by clusters of players from a few other European countries, most notably France, Spain and Germany. The departure of Gervinho saw the end of any Arsenal players' involvement in the African Cup of Nations, and there was a sense that, by focusing on building a British core, along with groups of players of the same nationality, Wenger might be able to build a culture of togetherness and loyalty to the Arsenal cause. This had become particularly important as our wage structure had not allowed us to compete with other clubs financially, and seen us lose several players, such as Fabregas, Van Persie and Nasri.
What is particularly encouraging about this change of introducing non-European players of different nationalities is that it demonstrates Wenger's increased confidence that players want to join Arsenal, and will want to stay. Not just because we can now compete financially, but also because there is a sense of gaining momentum, a positive trajectory, and further on-field success.
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