Does Ramsdale need more competition? by Dan Smith
I’m not one who often responds to transfer rumours but there does seem to be credible links that Arsenal is preparing a bid for David Raya.
The Spaniard was left out of Brentford’s squad at the weekend, his ex-goalkeeper coach works for us, and our interest was known in the past.
It raises the question, is this a position that needs altering?
In his debut year, Aron Ramsdale was my Gunner of the season.
I have often said that if everyone in our dressing room had his self-confidence, we wouldn’t have mentally fallen apart at the end of the last two campaigns.
Yet I can’t deny that as the pressure increased in the run is, his errors increased.
There’s the obvious error against the Saints but he also started to frequently get beat at his near post and I felt he escaped any criticism for conceding from the halfway line in the Europa League.
Yet when he’s good, he remains very good, as demonstrated at Anfield and Saint James’ Park.
Judging his career in North London in its entirety, I think the 25-year-olds body of work should have seen him by now named England’s number one!
He shouldn’t be looking over his shoulder.
Especially in a position where you don’t hit your peak years past the age of 30.
Mikel Arteta, for better or worse, is known for washing his hands of a talent the moment he sees something he doesn’t like.
Yet replacing his goalie would be the harshest decision yet. He’s purposely signed a young player in a role where mistakes are inevitable.
He brought Ramsdale with the understanding he would get better with age, why give up on him now?
There’s the notion that our manager feels his keeper would be less complacent with his place in the team under threat.
That’s what Arteta wanted to create when Martinez broke through during Leno’s injury. He wanted competition for places.
That’s fine until you consider Brentford are asking for 40 million for a free agent in 12 months’ time. That’s a lot to pay for someone to sit on the bench.
The truth is you don’t pay that unless you’re having doubts about who’s in goal.
Another theory is that one will start in the League while the other is the designated Champions League keeper. That only lasts so long, eventually you have to choose.
Anywhere else in a team you can rotate. A keeper needs consistency, he needs to build relationships with his back 4.
While I disagree with how much was spent on Havertz, I respect he improves the squad. He’s a better attacking option than Reiss Nelson or Eddie Nketiah.
This would be different.
This would be money that could be used on a striker, not being used to fix something that’s not broken.
Do you think Ramsdale needs replacing?
Dan Smith
Replacing no but a real challenger yes
Agree.👍
Am in agreement with the two post above.
But two bulls cannot rule in the same pen.
What about the young keeper’s that went on tour with the team? Another Martinez blunder…
Turner should have had more chances last year; he never should have been replaced at home against Sporting.
IMHO Ramsdale should be dropped from several of our opening 10 games this season in favor of Turner.
Ramsdale is complacent and doesn’t feel threatened. Drop him and show otherwise, he should be working hard and improving to earn starts.
I hope Arteta would drop anyone in favor of competition for starts.
It’s about the team and what’s best on that day, not playing those in bad form.
Ramsdale needs the competition, crumble or become a diamond.
Turner was not trusted after a bad performance in the first leg against Sporting and we need a back up keeper we can trust.
We will not pay £40m for Raya, that is their asking price but as he has one year left on his contract they will have to come down. Frank said he thought Raya was worth that much but they were open to negotiation. It should be possible to get get £15-20m for Turner and pay about £10m more for Raya. That is not much for a significant upgrade to someone who can be relied on to fill on for Ramsdale and push him for his place.
Turner hardly plays, naturally he would be rusty.
As opposed to Ramsdale’s poor performance against Sporting with far far more playing time.
At least Turner is effective in shootouts, but Ramsdale is as effective as a cardboard cut out. Percentages suggest he would guess right at some point, unfortunately we are still waiting.
Ramsdale has it far too easy and Arteta has not dropped him like he has others when form dipped, or mistakes get repeated.
Turner was signed to break into the American market ,we have seen it over the years signing players from Asia .
He was never going to our number one and I think he knew that ,if we can get a good few from forest then that will be good business even if we don’t sign Raya ,we have 2 capable keepers left for backup .
If we can sell Turner and use the funds to get Raya then it’s the best situation. Ramsdale came in hungry, intense, and eager to prove himself.
Now, he is complacent when he plays, still beaten easily on corner shots, and lost that “eye of the tiger” when he joined.
A player to challenge him and bench him several games is the best. Otherwise always being picked breeds complacency like we see now.
I don’t understand the hysteria around Arsenal strengthening the goal keeping department, when they’ve done so with every other position. Ramsdale does need competition and will need to sit on the bench whenever he performs poorly, as is the case with other players. He’s no holy cow. Araya must take the no.1 shirt if he’s a better player.
If Raya wants to come and we can sort a decent price then it is a brilliant opportunity to lone up two top class keepers
Think Raya is the better keeper makes fewer mistakes and better distributorn with the ball at his feet if Arsenal sign can see him being the number 1 not sure Ramsdale would settle for being back up and vice versa be very difficult to keep 2 very good keepers happy!
.You will never keep two happy but beats keeping one complacent.
He’s solid enough ,but is prone to mistakes and seems to have a problem with his near post saves .
Raya while better with his feet which obviously Arteta wants does not warrant A 40 million pound transfer fee seeing he only has 12 months remaining on his contract ,if we could get him for half the price then why not ,but I would sceptical if he would come here as a back up to Ramsdale .
Would rather see us spend it somewhere else but wouldn’t moan if he was signed for said 20 million .
Overconfident is the major bane of Ramsdale and which often cost us vital points. He is found of frequently leaving his goal line that is usually capitalized upon by strikers. Since he’s prone and addicted to committing this silly mistakes, it becomes pertinent for the manager to provide a suitable competitor for him. David Raya will give him a good competition.
It has taken Arteta and his support team some time to recognise the frailties of Ramsdale and they obviously have concerns regarding Turner ,who to me looks a very decent keeper.By not giving Turner game time last season, they have shot themselves in the foot as his performances for the USA in the World Cup were excellent.Rather than unloading Turner, perhaps they should replace Ramsdale with Raya and retain Turner as back up?This suggestion may not go down well in certain quarters but it is an option which could narrow the financial gap if Brentford did dig in their heels and demand 40m for the Spaniard.In any event whoever starts as our number 1, I hope they can improve on the error count which cost us dear last season.
I think the addition of David Raya is an attempt to up grade our back-up option.
I watched Turner play for the US Men’s national team, and he was, in my opinion, very shaky.
Although the American media think he is the bees knees.
However in some of the Arsenal preseason games Ramalamadingdong has looked less than “with it”.
I think Raya as the number 2 will provide a real wake up call.
There will potentially be a lot of games to play next season, and room for both keepers to get plenty of minutes.
The real question is “Should e spend our capital on a keeper, or are there other areas that need attention (like a third DM)
No Ramsdale does not need to be replace, yes he has developed an habit of falling into a little nap at his near post.
Ramsdale is good both with his feet and sublime distribution, he could makes a good captain for the team as well his personality is infectious.
I must admit Raya looks impressive with the ball at his feet, but as much as it appears as a good idea two bulls cannot stay in the same pen.
Not even the mighty assemble Citizens has two very good goalies.
Replacement, no, but he does tend to make mistakes at times. However he is fantastic between the sticks, just has to be more tactical when playing out from the back. Look for the danger signs and clear his lines. Sticks to the basics.
I don’t think the rumors are true to start with, nice try by his agent.
Rather than that,
Maybe we should sell Nketiah & Balogun,
then add that money to be used to buy Raya to what we get from both sales,
then buy a Striker that can put Jesus on his toes
Or buy a right winger to reduce our dependence on Saka
Those are more pressing needs
regret our manager decision to sell Leno at a throw away price after rejecting our best keeper Martinez. Those two were miles better than this twice relegated below average and overated shotstoper Ramsdale. An apology to the fans would be the least Arteta should do by signing Raya and giving him the no 1shirt with immediate effect. ASAP.
By the way, already loving Chelsea’s Jackson
It’s shouldn’t be that difficult to scout and find a Striker who just loves putting the ball in the back of the net.
Sincerely I won’t mind Harry Kane if he’s willing to come
Nothing wrong with competition for places in the team.
With Ramsdale, we are very UNLIKELY to win a prized Trophy like the EPL or UEFA champions league.😕
He flops at long shots and is poor with Penalties.😒
I Wish we could get a Big, Bold, formidable keeper like Bounou of Sevilla, Emi Martinez of Aston Villa or Yann Sommer of Byern Munich. 🙂😊
He felt comfortable nobody to challenge him for the number one spot in the club if he have another good goal keeper that is fighting for first choice keeper in the club he will wakeup
What a difference a few months make when Ramsdale was still well respected
Fast forward and now we should be re signing Martinez
This scenario reminds me of when Pep decided that Hart didn’t cut it.
Aren’t we a fickle bunch, I include myself in that statement. A goal keeper wasn’t at the top of my list as a priority, but I must admit that more doubts regarding Ramsdale have crept into my mind. I can’t think of a team that has won the league who has not had a great keeper, or alternatively a good keeper that had a great season. Maybe it did happen, but I think you understand my point. I don’t think Raya is a great keeper, but he is solid. Ramsdale will either kick on to be great or will continue to be good but flawed. It would appear that MA is covering all his bases, with the exception of a striker, which is at the top of my priority list 😊. If you watched the Barcelona vs Real Madrid game, I think it was so obvious how Real Madrid missed Benzima. I know we beat Barca, but I still think our money is better spent on a striker.
No official interest from the club on David Raya. Probably Brentford using Arsenal to mark up his price as other clubs circles around. So to slacking off Arteta for rumours is very unwise. Ramsdale and Raya will provide outrageous competition though. Let’s see what happens. I’m more concern of in field play among the 10 upfield players at the moment. New players gotta click with the existing players as soon as possible.
The main topic aside, the article picture of Xhaka hugging Partey is very emotional. They played, fought and soldiered side by side in the midfield with their captain last season. I hope we play Bayer Leverkusan this season so I would like to see them both hugging again. Brilliant duo.
Comparing last seasons stats for both Ramsdale and Raya, Raya clearly comes out as a much more reliable GK. In fact ramsdale made more errors leading to shots than any other player in the league. Also Raya boasts better shot save percentage, even when Raya received a total of 200 shots compared to somewhere around 130ish for Ramsdale. Also Raya’s long ball distribution trumps Ramsdale by a mile. I don’t think Raya is coming to be Ramsdale’s understudy but the opposite.
We could have up to 60 games the coming season. We need to have a top team out even if players get injured. Raya will make us strong even if Ramsdale gets injured. Arteta is truly going for it this season. Players need about 40 games a season to keep top performance. We know more than that can induce burn-out.
I have watched Raya over the past two seasons and he is also prone to making errors.
He is not that tall either, and had problems catching balls played in from set pieces.
So I am not sure how much of an improvement he would be.
I think that $40m might be better spent eldewhere.