ALMUNIA, ARSENAL, ABBOTS LANGLEY, ANA, APPARITION, ALBACETE, 'AMMERS

On 19 February 2008, the Daily Mail reported that Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia believed his house was haunted.

Almunia, who joined the Gunners in 2004 from Celta Vigo, purchased a house in the Hertfordshire village of Abbots Langley, close to Arsenal's Shenley Training Center. According to the Daily Mail, the house may have been built on the site of Leavesden Hospital, a mental hospital that closed sometime during the 1990s.

The goalkeeper claimed that his wife, Ana, had seen "a monk-like figure with a candle in his hand at the end of the bed." Almunia himself had not seen the ghost, but heard chains rattling, saw stereos turn on at full volume, and was, in his own words "s***-scared." The situation had gotten so bad that Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger granted permission for Almunia to go home for lunch so that his wife would not be there alone.

Arsenal's starting keeper since 2008, Almunia has recently fallen down the pecking order at Arsenal and is now behind Lukasz Fabianski and 20-year old rising star Wojciech Szczęsny, making only eight appearances this season.

Manuel Almunia Rivero (born 19 May 1977), competed mainly in the Spanish lower leagues in his early years, only appearing in 26 La Liga games over the course of two seasons with Recreativo and Albecete after starting out at Osasuna. Most of his professional career was spent with Arsenal, for whom he signed in 2004, going on to play 175 official matches and winning the 2005 FA Cup Final. He also had a short loan spell at West Ham Utd.

In 2012, after his contract expired, Almunia joined Watford and played there for two years, following which, he retired on medical advice. Almunia did not represent Spain at any level. He stated on more than one occasion his desire to play for England, only provided that he did not receive a call-up from his nation of birth first.

Almunia, whose brother served in the UN Peacekeeping Operations in Kosovo, has an interest in the Second World War and regularly visited sites associated with the conflict before European games with Arsenal.