Unless you’re living under a rock with no access to Cable TV, internet and social media, you’d know by now that David Raya is the undisputed No. 1 at Arsenal after taking over from Aaron Ramsdale last September. Raya went on to play every match in the Premier League with the exception of the two-legged clashes with his parent club, Brentford, leaving Ramsdale to a handful of appearances in the recently concluded campaign.
With Arsenal retaining Raya on a permanent basis, and the writing was on the wall for Ramsdale, as he seeks to leave the club for pastures anew, after confirming that he’s not going to spend another season relegated to the bench for an entire campaign. It must have been very difficult for Ramsdale to stay on the bench for an entire season, after featuring consistently in previous clubs seasons before. After successful loan spells at Chesterfield and AFC Wimbledon in the 17/18 and 18/19 season, Ramsdale established himself as the No. 1 for AFC Bournemouth, playing 37 games for the outfit before suffering the ignominy of relegation. In the following campaign, Ramsdale returned to the Premier League, featuring in all 38 league games for Sheffield United, but he went down a division, despite being their player of the year.
Two games into his Championship campaign with Sheffield United, Ramsdale moved to Arsenal at the start of the 21/22 season, taking over from Bernd Leno after the international break and featuring in 34 games that season, that saw Arsenal narrowly miss out on Champions League qualification. The season after that, Arsenal turned up a notch and challenged for the Premier League, and Ramsdale was very instrumental to that campaign, playing all 38 games and rightfully earning a spot in the Premier League Team of the Year.
Fast forward to last season, and Ramsdale was back in the same trenches that he met Leno a couple of seasons ago. To add to the drama, third choice goalie, Karl Hein, has successfully completed his loan move to Real Valladolid, which was a pre-requisite to him agreeing to extend his stay at the club. Hein leaving on loan after enjoying his best preseason spell with the club sees Ramsdale return from his extended holidays to train with the first team, knowing that the only chance of him featuring in the Premier League or Champions League would be an injury to Raya, a suspension of some sort, or a terrible loss of form.
His agent has already been on the streets, hustling a new club for his client, and when transfer guru, David Ornstein, reported (via The Athletic) that Ajax approached Arsenal regarding a possible transfer, but it was outrightly rejected, you can tell that it’s going to be an interesting summer on the goalkeeping front. Arsenal has identified Spanish Olympic gold medal winner from Espanyol, Joan Garcia, as a potential replacement, but I’d expect that Edu Gaspar and his team will facilitate the move from Garcia once Ramsdale’s move away from the club is firmed up.
With Ramsdale signing a contract extension just a couple of seasons ago, Arsenal will be looking to cash big on this asset, but it’s just a question of who’s going to bring the wad of cash needed to make it happen. Ajax’s loan bid for Ramsdale was rejected because the club wants to secure a permanent move for the English shot stopper, rather than a short term loan with no real prospect of making things official.
There is still a lot of time between now and the end of the transfer window, and we will see how things pan out. In as much as I’m indifferent where Ramsdale ends up, I would love to see him retained in the Premier League, so that we can enjoy his virtuoso performances and the clangers as well. We know how agile he is and he’s one hell of a shot stopper, but his concentration levels are meh, and we have seen him deliver a howler or two in his time at the club.
He is well loved in the club and will be missed when he leaves, but it’s important that he departs from Arsenal for the sake of his career, a sentiment shared by Arsenal goalkeeping legend, David Seaman, in his interview with the Daily Star,
‘I’ve always said Aaron is too good to be a number two. He’s a fantastic player. He needs to play. Wherever that is, I don’t know.
‘It’s a weird situation. Ideally, you’d love him to stay because that would be great for the club.
‘But he needs to move for his career. And that includes England because, if he’s not playing, he’ll keep dropping down the pecking order with them.’
At 26, Ramsdale is at an age where he needs to feature consistently, and nobody will begrudge when he makes his move from Arsenal permanent.
Let’s just hope that it will be a deal that will be good for the both the player and the club.
Sayonara.
Follow Gooner Daily on Twitter @goonerdaily.
Visit Gooner Daily’s Facebook page.
Feel free to subscribe to Gooner Daily’s Mailing List
