Chris Wheatley is claiming that Arsenal have given up their chase of Aaron Ramsdale this summer because of Sheffield United’s asking price.
The goalkeeper has been touted as our preferred goalkeeping option this summer, despite the Blades said to be in want of £30-40 Million (depending on your preferred sources).
The reported fee has caused a stir in some circles, with myself included believing anything close to that fee would be extortionate and unnecessary, and it will certainly be a relief to hear Football.London’s Chris Wheatley state that we are now looking elsewhere.
Which goalkeepers should Arsenal be looking to sign? How much do you believe would have been a fair fee for Ramsdale?
Patrick
it will be the best decision for this transfer window,,,,,it would have been a day time robbery………….without violence though
10 mil no more than that! Good.. we dodged a bullet then, he’s an average keeper and no team would pay 30/40 million for Ramsdale Sheffield United must have been smoking whatever the Arsenal recruitment team were when they went a pound over 40 mil for Luis Suarez.
You mean when Suarez’s team informed us he had a release clause, we bid it but then Liverpool claimed it was merely a gentleman’s agreement not sure how that ever remotely reflects badly on us. A media hatchet job launched by Liverpool to distract from the fact Suarez wanted out that our fanbase to this day embarrassingly laps up. Same way they leaked Sterling wanted obscene wages when he had told them he wouldn’t sign for any wage because he was going to City for trophies. Liverpool sure have good connections in the media.
As to 10 mil for Ramsdale, Sheffield paid nearly 20 mil last year for him. He was a regular starter that they would like to keep. 10 mil is obviously absurd. 20-25 with a few performance clauses is fair enough. If they want 30+ then we move on which seems to be the case.
Whichever way you look at it 40 mil + 1 quid is an embarrassment and no serious recruitment team would offer such a payment, we’d probably have been respected more had we not offered the extra pound. And whatever Sheffield United paid for Ramsdale doesn’t reflect his true value, the fact is they overpaid in recruiting him and now are trying to make a big resale on him because hes a squad player in the England national team. For the money quoted we could easily get a far better keeper, if we are genuinely only looking for a number 2 we could go and get Sam Johnstone and add a right back for what SU are quoting.
Kev82, after reading the litany of Angus nonsense, I think I know where all that smoke you were talking about came from…that farcical bid opened a lot of people’s eyes about the disingenuous manner in which our club conducted itself when it came to their “recruitment” practices…if you didn’t know by then, it was clear from that point forward that our club would feign interest in players of some import to both quell fan dissension and to maximize profits during the usual off-season ticket and merchandizing drives
At least you can remove your protective cup now… for the time being!
I like to be proactive, so it stays on junk patrol just in case…better to be safe, than sorry
‘In 2014 we were looking to get LS over. We had an agreement with the player and his agent. But the agent claimed that there was a clause: with an offer over £49m, Liverpool would be obliged to let the player go. But thanks to an indiscretion within Liverpool, I found out this clause never existed. To check this was true, we offered £49,000,001. This may have seemed ludicrous, I admit. But Liverpool did not want to sell Suarez, they could afford to keep him’. AW.
Gleaned only the other day as I’m currently ploughing through his exceedingly dull autobiography.
I pray this is a truthful account of the situation and not a negotiating ploy
Hope this deal doesn’t happen, especially for the fees being mentioned. That much for a BACKUP GK is beyond stupid.
He’s average at best, bad as Leno at playing from the back, and not close to competing with Leno for starts.
Getting mugged is one thing, but average player for Top GK fee is criminal.
If they want best GK available it’s Onana, and lowest fee & best value. A gamble hoping Leno isn’t injured until Onana can play in November I believe.
If they want homegrown I’d go for Freddie Woodman of Newcastle. He’s young and good backup but not straight competition.
Woodman has good potential and developed properly could shine for Arsenal in the future.
But hey trust the process right?
So Arsenal are one Leno injury away from being in serious trouble. As it is, we are heading to Brentford with Arthur Okonkwo, officially designated our 3rd. keeper, on the bench. If he has to come on, we’d better hope that when he attempts a clearance, he can actually connect with the ball!
Good. £30 mil is far too much for a backup GK
Willian has been disastrous, yet,time after time, we have seen Arteta give him opportunities one after the other. But, our young talents get one chance to succeed. If they fail to come good, they are sidelined indefinitely. Okonkwo must be given more minutes this season to blossom, because he is quite talented. Everyone make mistakes.
All of Saka, Auba, Pepe and Smith-rowe played more minutes than Willian. He actually got more assists than all of them on less minutes too but that doesn’t change the fact he wasn’t good enough. Just some perspective he didn’t play nearly as many minutes as people pretend (15th in the squad total), Smith-rowe beat him on minutes despite being out 3 months. Had the likes of smith-rowe, martinelli and odegaard been available before Christmas he’d of played even less.
I didn’t know the stats Angus, and taking a punt on Willian was ok but for his wages and length of contract. I hope he can rouse himself this season
His wages is £100/week not £250 like Auba who despite playing minutes after minute have done nothing of note since last season. We can blame Arteta for many things but players like Auba should not be exempt from blame.
Sometimes we say he doesn’t get enough service but I have seen him miss sitters, I have seen him make several wrong decisions, he is now a one touch player
Absolute nonsense. I have just read 4 different sites. 2 saying the deal is done and the other 2 saying the deal is off cos it’s too expensive.
What a load of old croc.
Why not wait for the official site to announce things then Atid?
It saves an awful lot of time, speculation and frustration.
Yeah no point getting wound up by speculation. Best you can do is try to read between the lines but until the window closes noone not even those at club know perfectly what will transpire.
Squad is starting to take a nice youthful shape though:
New young striker, Balgoun, Saka, Pepe, martinelli, new young cam, smith-rowe, Lokonga, azeez, Tierney, Tavares, Gabriel, White, Saliba, Osei-Tutu, new young GK.
Imagine that in 4 years with 3 summer windows not too shabby especially if we can focus on 1 marquee signing each year.
Hard to bring in top signing without CL or European football at least, not to mention the wages to convince them.
Assuming we can keep all the young talent from leaving over 3 or 4 years.
I agree with you we could be a force were that scenario to happen, just think we’d sell more youth if big offers come in.
Imagine City or someone offering £80 million or more for Saka; you confident Kronke would refuse?
£30 million now for ESR one thing, but how about £60 -£70 million in 2 years?
We’ve sold off our best players before, Kronke would again if price was high.
KEN THOUGH I TOTALLY TAKE YOUR POIINT , HOW ELSE WOULD JA SURVIVE WITHOUT CONSTANT RUMOURS? I dislike the constant runours more than perhaps any other Gooner, as I LOATHE deliberate hype and dishonesty used just for debate.
But despite my constantly saying this to Ad PAT, IT WILL NOT SUCCEED, as ethics will always come second to business “morals”, with our club and other clubs as well as JA. SIGH!
I will tell you something else too Ken. I am extremely close to giving up watching or following top level football altogether, as the corruptness that engulfs it all, cheating, diving , ref baiting, VAR, FIFA, UEFA, the unfair financial playing field, esp the scandalous wages, are more and more hard to stomach as each year passes.
I have long wrestled with my conscience as to whether i can continue condoning something of which I detest and loathe even myself for being a small part of it as a fan.
And apart from the actual game itself, I loathealmost all most other aspects of how it is run and how it operates. Even the constant greed from fans, all crying for still more to be spent – which includes ME too – to my shame.
I do not wish to go into my grave as an immoral human TBH!
Wheatley is credible. Who are the sources saying the deal is done and what is the timing of the reports? I will bet they predate Wheatley’s report.
What time does the liquor store close? Time for champagne!
That’s what happens when you try to steal a quality player on the cheap. Its £30 million rising to £40 million for the next England keeper. Either pay the asking price or move on. Strange though it may sound no club has a divine duty to sell to arsenal on the cheap simply because they cocked up horrendously by giving martinez away for peanuts.
If Ben White is worth 50+ mils for finishing 16th in the league and making the England squad for the Euros, then 30+ mils is reasonable for Ramsdale for finishing at the bottom of the league and making the Euro squad and playing the exact same number of minutes as White in the Euros.
He is a below average keeper, even 20 mil for him would be too much i’m glad arsenal pulled out.
Its good if the deal has been called off. If at all we are going in for a good GK, lets go in either for Onana or Sam Johnstone. Lets look at quality signings.
Where are the arsenal scouts?? I swear there are keepers out there , not necessarily in the uk but other league that would cost a lot less and would give Leno a good fight
No one knows why we are going after homegrown this summer, who knows maybe they are preparing for the future, probably a certain rule is coming that will force teams to increase homegrown quotas due to brexit.
Looking at Utd Chelsea and city buys all seems to be homegrown too. Any thoughts along this line?
I’ve already replied with a link to your earlier comment in the other article “Arteta told he has to deliver European football this season” on this topic. Please, check that.
In short, the new proposal may increase the quota from the existing 8 to 12. And two among the 12 must have been developed by the club’s youth system.
@Angus, very refreshing posts from you bringing realistic views to this site. Your comments especially in the Suarez situation were spot on!
If this is the case then Arsenal have definitely dodged a bullet.
As a life-long Arsenal fan living in Bournemouth I can safely say that Ramsdale is distinctly average…has an unhappy knack of palming shots towards oncoming forwards and couldn’t catch a proverbial cold.His kicking is only marginally better than Leno’s and I’ve no idea what the Arsenal hierarchy see in him other than he’s young and English…Then so was Richard Wright!!
I love my arsenal, we sold a world class goalkeeper for 20million but the following season we are trying to buy a rubbish goalkeeper for 35million. This can only happen at arsenal.
By the end of this thread, I fear Ramsdale’s price will have gone up to £50m….
looks like for some strange reason Arsenal are looking for home grown keeper? According to Matt Ryan who wanted to sign for Arsenal (for much less than 30M)
There is only one non home grown slot left unless some players leave. But then you expect Lucas to leave so that means 2 slot free at least .
So if this true then may one or two foreign players expected in this Window?
Two entirely separate thoughts: Firstly, this latest report may or may not be true, as other reports say the direct opposite of this.
Secondly, almost all Gooners , to judge by the many comments on JA, are firmly against signing Ramsdale, at least not anywhere near thr asking price . This is my view too.
Finally, my instinct is that a deal WILL be done, probably in the last window hours. I hope I am wrong, as I do not see anything special in this keeper at all.