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Town Confirm Signing of Keeper Muric Wednesday, 17th Jul 2024 12:38
Town have confirmed the signing of Kosovo international keeper Arijanet Muric from Burnley on a four-year deal.
The Blues have been on the lookout for a new number one following the departure of Vaclav Hladky, who left the club earlier this month having been unable to agree terms on a new deal at Portman Road.
News that the Blues were working on a deal to sign the 25-year-old first emerged at the weekend with Town understood to be paying an initial fee of £8 million plus £2 million in add-ons. Muric’s former club Manchester City will receive a percentage from a sell-on.
“I’m excited to have joined the club and am looking forward to getting started,” Muric, usually known by the diminutive Aro, told TownTV.
“I watched how the team played last season and feel the style will suit me very well, so this is the perfect move for me.
“I have had good conversations with the manager [Kieran McKenna] and Rene [Gilmartin, head of goalkeeping] and believe this is the right place for me to be as the Club moves into the Premier League. I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Swiss-born Muric, who will join up with the squad at their Austria training camp havign become the club’s fifth recruit of the summer, joined City’s youth set-up from Zurich-based Grasshoppers in 2015 and while at the Etihad spent spells on loan at NAC Breda, Nottingham Forest, Girona, Willem II and Adana Demirspor in Türkiye.
Having made five Carabao Cup appearances for City, the 6ft 6in tall glovesman joined Burnley on a four-year deal in the summer of 2022 was a member of the Clarets side which won the Championship in 2022/23, a season in which he was named in the PFA Team of the Year.
Last season, Muric made 10 Premier League starts for the Lancashire side - all in the final couple of months of the season after he regained his place from summer recruit James Trafford - in addition to four games in cup competitions. Overall, he made 52 appearances for the Clarets, keeping 21 clean sheets.
A latter-day Paul Cooper or Roy Bailey, Muric has saved eight of 26 penalties over his career, including one from England skipper Harry Kane while in action for Kosovo in a Euros qualifier.
Muric is Town's second Kosovo international following Bersant Celina. The keeper has won 38 full caps, having previously made one U21 appearance for Montenegro.
Portman Road’s keeping ranks could be set for a major overhaul this summer following Hladky’s departure. The Czech has turned down Banik Ostrava in his home country and is understood to have been offered the chance to swap places with Muric at Burnley. Another Czech club Jablonec have also been in talks, while Slavia Prague have been linked, but it’s reported that the 33-year-old would prefer to stay in England.
Christian Walton could potentially move on for first-team football, while Cieran Slicker has said the next stage of his development is a move on loan with Scottish clubs Kilmarnock, Ross County and Partick Thistle all believed to be keen.
Photo: ITFC
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He was superb in the promotion season and was unlucky to make way for Trafford last season which only really happened because Burnley had to justify the large fee spent on Trafford in my opinion. Has a few clangers in his catalogue but which keeper doesn’t. A definite upgrade and fits McKennas style of play.
Very happy with this. We seem to be dialed into the Man City youth team conveyer belt, not a bad thing! Muric was well thought of that Burnley and got a lot of plaudits in the Prem towards the end of the season, definitely very capable.
I'm not unhappy about the Muric signing, just think that if Walton leaves looking for the No.1 spot, it may leave us a bit short in the goalkeeping department seeing that Slicker has already stated that he's looking to go out on loan. We are going to need more than 1 capable keeper in the premier league.
Welcome to the Club Arijanet. Have/had my fears for his foot skills after watching him on MOTD, but I'm gonna hope that our defenders give him more time on the ball than the Burnley defence did. No doubt he's a shot stopper and commander of the box. Let's just get working on those feet in Austria!
Trying to think of a McKenna signing that has been a failure… perhaps Scarlett from spurs but it was more a case of others playing so well he couldn’t get in the team. Muric has pedigree and has had title winning, team of the year success at a young age and on the evidence I can’t not trust McKenna’s judgement.
Brilliant news, hopefully pre-season will enable him to get to know Greaves/Wolfy/Burgess/Davis and Johnson so they can start knocking it around confidently. Just need another central midfielder and I think we are pretty much there!
Clearly we want another central midfielder and another attacking player(given we pushed so hard for Philogene) and maybe another striker? We have the loan market and two of those can be from this country, so perhaps two or three top class loanees would complete the squad. I always thought we needed 8/9 signings.
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