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