Aaron Ramsdale has had a very tumultuous season by his fair standards.
Joining Arsenal in 2021 after two consecutive relegations with Bournemouth and Sheffield United didn’t help, but he bided his time and took his opportunity when Bernd Leno was dropped following Arsenal’s disastrous start to the 2021/22 campaign that saw Mikel Arteta’s side lose their first three games, rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table with a shocking goal difference of – 9. Ramsdale’s debut was in the 1-0 win over Norwich and as the games piled on for the Englishman, Leno became disgruntled with lack of playing time.
Arsenal has had very unique situations with goalkeepers in the past and the trend has not stopped. David Seaman was one that stuck around for a very long time because his deputies, Stuart Taylor and Rami Shaaban, were not up to scratch but when Jens Lehmann came around, Seaman was in his yesteryears, so the transition was pretty much seamless. Lehmann served Arsenal with valor and Manuel Almunia took over the reins.
Then the goalkeeping meery-go-round commenced in full force – Almunia had his struggles and was ousted by Lukasz Fabianski. Fabianski has a brief stint as the Number 1 before he was usurped by the fledgling Wojciech Szczezny. Szczesny had the potential to go to the Moon but his off-field incidents played a role in his downfall at the club before David Oooooooooooooooooooooooospina took over from him.
A window of opportunity appeared when Petr Cech called the curtain on his Chelsea career and it was evident that Ospina couldn’t compete with the seasoned goalie, but Arsenal got a version of Cech that was past his peak, so a certain German shot stopper from Bayer Leverkusen was signed, and replaced Cech. There was still time to sell Emiliano Martinez in the midst of all this goalkeeping drama.
Fast forward to the 2022/23 season – Leno was sold to Fulham for peanuts, because that’s what we do, then we went to the MLS to scoop up Matt Turner. Ramsdale was the undisputed Number 1 and put up monster performances as Arsenal came close to winning the Premier League, before falling short at the business end of the campaign, but Ramsdale rightly earned his place in the Team of the Year, earning himself a contract extension for his outstanding performances.
Then there was David Raya. Turner, fresh off an entire campaign sitting on the bench called it quits on his Arsenal career and jumped at the opportunity when Nottingham Forest came calling. Arteta had absolutely no trust in Runar Alex Runarsson, so it was speculated that a keeper he admired as far back as 2020 when Brentford were still in the Championship, Raya, was up for grabs, he did what he needed to do.
Prior to his arrival at Arsenal, Raya put up some monster numbers in the previous campaign for Brentford, helping them to their mid-table finish with some breathtaking goalkeeping displays. He was first in the Premier League last season for saves (154), first for saves from outside the box (64), first for touches (1,550), first for long passes completed (410) and second for crosses caught (50), garnering 12 clean sheets along the way.
In direct comparison with Ramsdale, Raya faced 205 shots and conceded 43 goals while Ramsdale faced 138 shots and conceded 42. However, Ramsdale beat Raya to win the Best Goalkeeper award in the London Awards, as well as the Premier League Team of the Season. Like Ramsdale, Raya is an excellent shot stopper, contains bags of bravery and can build up from the back. So Arteta signed a goalie that can offer just as much as Ramsdale in goal.
Ramsdale started the first four games of the Premier League campaign, and Raya made his much-anticipated debut against Everton, and went on to win the Golden Glove with 16 clean sheets in 32 Premier League games. Due to the fact that Raya was on loan at Brentford, the Spanish goalie missed both games against his parent club, and Ramsdale would want to forget the clash at the Emirates were he made a high-profile error leading to a goal and was almost caught out by a stupendous strike from Ivan Toney.
However, Ramsdale made the cut for Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2024 squad and with Jordon Pickford the undisputed No. 1 for England, Ramsdale is pretty much out there to enjoy the sights and sounds of Germany, while training with the Three Lions. Following an interview with TalkSport, Ramsdale has labelled his inclusion to the England squad as a release,
“No footballer wants to not play. “I’ve had a tough year personally not playing and I never want to do that again.”
“It was tough, it was tough. But I have my release now, I’m now here, I’ve got the greatest honour, the greatest badge on my chest, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if I play a minute or no minutes, it will be the pinnacle for me, the best day ever.
“For the time being I’m probably one of the happiest 26, 27 men in England and hopefully we can make not just us but however many millions at home the happiest as well.”
One thing we have always known about Ramsdale is his honesty, like how he shockingly revealed that he lacks concentration sometimes, so it is refreshing to see that he has plans for his future after the conclusion of the European Championships. Like Leno before him, a goalie of his caliber should not be rotting in the bench at Arsenal and personally, I’d like to see him at a club like Newcastle, that has two goalies, Nick Pope and Martin Dubravka, in the Septembers of their career.
I just hope that Edu Gaspar and his negotiation team can get a good fee for him, and Arsenal will be tasked yet again to sign a backup goalie. Karl Hein is currently negotiating a contract extension with the club, so he’d serve as the deputy, till Arsenal sign someone. I trust it would be one of them quiet signings, like Turner.
Till then, I wish Ramsdale the best in his future endeavors. We had some great times and not so good times together, but his commitment was never in doubt.
All focus will remain on the European Championships for now, but I trust Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein to get cooking on some juicy Ramsdale departure news.
Sayonara.
Follow Gooner Daily on Twitter @goonerdaily.
Visit Gooner Daily’s Facebook page.
Click on the “Follow button” to join Gooner Daily’s Mailing List
