Is Aaron Ramsey (or anyone) really worth 400,000 GBP a week?

Aaron Ramsey has been speaking to many clubs after letting his Arsenal contract run down, and it has now been confirmed by Juventus that he will be joining the Italian Champions in the summer on a free transfer. With the money saved on transfer fees, Ramsey will see his wages jump to an amazing 400,000 GBP a week after a bidding war between some of the biggest clubs in Europe. This was an offer the Welshman could hardly refuse…

As Ian Wright said on Match of the Day: “I’m not sure Aaron Ramsey could turn down a deal like this with the clubs that were interested. He’s just another player who got into the situation where he could run the contract down.

“When you consider the contracts that have been given out, Arsenal couldn’t afford to keep him alongside the players they’ve got with the contracts they are on.

“I think Arsene Wenger said not so long ago this is going to be regular occurrence. Players are getting paid so much they can afford to run down a contract.

“At his age, he’s worth at least £30-40m. Juventus are saving so much money even with what they are paying him. It is a move that makes sense to everybody other than the club he is leaving.”

Although Ramsey is not really rated that highly by Arsenal fans, it is quite an amazing figure, only bettered by Ronaldo in Italy. But is Ramsey really worth that much?

Admin

66 Comments

      1. Yes, footballers need to gather as much money as they can to sustain their lifestyle in retirement

        Unfortunately what I would gather in my entire life might only be equal to a fraction of their live savings

        I think Ramsey is very happy now, because his bashers are getting quieter and he has got a much better salary package than his withdrawn contract

        1. The most fkd up thing is, even after playing career they still have enormous job opportunities:

          – managing
          – punditry (look at how much they get paid!)
          – youth staff
          – scouting/other club related duties

      2. Most people wouldn’t spend a month of their wages in a lifetime!!! When they retire most of them move on to either commentating or managing, so just because they hang their boots up, it doesn’t mean they’ll never work again!!! Plus surely they could live off the interest of their mega bucks

        1. not necessarily, it doesn’t happen like that for all of them. some even go bankrupt. anyway am happy for Ramsey. on the brighter side @2014 FA cup final come back win. it was a beautiful wedding day gift for me.

      3. Football player or ant colony? They can do loads like getting overpayed by al jazzera or sky to give us no new information or manager or become a director of football, scout , ambassador ,etc… some even run for office Weah became president!! Ah the poor footballer when Some had to get loans to pay for their education, working on the side and supporting their families…the world is cruel even doctors who study their entire life get paid less, these numbers for bang average players are shocking!!

        Ps; he is so not worth that money, madness!!

      4. Have you ANY idea how silly a remark that is when speaking of top Prem level footballers? They can very easily , in a single year, earn enough to sustain them all their life. Trouble is that many of them chosse ot waste it on nonsensical and idiotic financially decreasing materialism , rather than invest in pensions, property, shares etc. IF, which they is not, their careers were only a year or( at most two years long), THEN and ONLY then would your trite and unthought through remark hold even a cupful of water.

    1. Sue I don’t believe Ramsey is going to be paid that much. Why? because they don’t pay that much outside epl for players of his quality. Other than Messi, Ronaldo, Grizemann and Nemyer which player is on 300k/wk in outside epl and those are players with exceptional qualities. Besides I think this news has a bit of hidden agenda to it. Why nobody knows what Emre Can who took similar path wages was. Ramsey’s transfer to Juve whether free or not has once again confirmed that our players are not crap contrary to people’s beliefs. Why they ‘didn’t play’ well for us remain a mystery

      1. I agree, this is just media still praising another overrated UK player. Let’s wait and see how much he will play in Torin, this will be interesting, not money he earns.
        Anyway, I am so glad that he is gone!

    2. They ain’t paying sign on fee remember, Ramsey is worth about £50-60M in today’s crazy transfer market. Paying him £400,000 for 4 yrs is about £83M. They are making even more profit from the deal considering market.

      1. Fishbone, thank goodness someone can still do mathmatical workings.
        Why on earth anyone would be sympathetic to any current, uninjured, top professional footballer today is beyond me.
        One year on £400,000 a week works out at £2,080,000 before tax.
        Taxed at 50% leaves £1, 040,000.
        Four year contract = £4,160,000.

        That is what, roughly, Aaron Ramsey will have earnt from Juventus at the age of 32.
        I suggest one can only guess what his current bank balance stands at, including the money made from promotional contracts at Arsenal and now Juventus.

        Not bad for a player deemed as being just an AW favourite, only able to do flick ups and no footballing brain is it?
        Our club let him go for nothing, what is going on? Juve must think we are idiots or even worse than that!!

        Do I feel sorry for professional footballers? No.
        But do I blame them either? No.
        It’s the immorality, greed,and corruption from the very top of our wonderful game that has created this obscene picture.

        1. Ken, you have your decimal points, commas and zeros wrong.

          £400,000.00 per week x 52 weeks = £20,800,000.00
          Less 50% tax = £10,400,000.00 Net
          £10,400,000.00 x 4 years = £41,600,000.00
          So Forty One Million, Six Hundred Thousand pounds in his sky rocket for 4 years work!

          Bloody good luck to him I say.

          1. stubill, thanks for the correction mate, explained like the gentleman you are.
            At least I did say that Fishbone was the only mathmatician on here didn’t I?
            When I did it I thought…well if that’s all he’s worth, what’s the problem, it’s only £4 million, but £41,600,000?
            Now I can really see why he was called an average player who we won’t miss. Ha Ha Ha

            Sorry folks, a genuine mistake on my part and save it up Aaron, you might be able to by our club soon the way kronkie’s running it into the ground!!

  1. Absolutely ridiculous wages if it’s true (£400,000 a week?). Ramsey is very average to me, but that is only my personal opinion. These things are subjective of course. Looking at the types of midfielders we have had at Arsenal throughout wengers time Ramsey does not make my list. I have very high standards in my rating of players because i have watched the likes of Bergkamp, Vieir, Cesc, Rosicky, Santi etc play. I have seen great midfielders of the 90’s and early 2000’s around Europe. But anyway, good luck to Ramsey, he has done more for Arsenal in the last 5 seasons than some other overrated players we have. A star in all our FA CUP wins.

    1. Ramsey is not skillful enough to be a no 10, but he was a very good box-to-box CM. Ian Wright once said that Ramsey never hides and I agree that Ramsey is one of a few Arsenal players that is always willing to take high risks

      He is not worth 400k weekly salary, but Ian Wright is correct on how Juventus are actually saving money by not paying a transfer fee for a high quality and experienced international CM

      In my opinion, only a midfield general like Messi and a powerful goalscorer like Ronaldo deserve such extravagant salary. In EPL, the deserving players are the motors/ focal points of their teams, such as Salah, Aguero, De Bruyne, Hazard, etc

      1. Those players you listed in the EPL, put one of them in this Arsenal team, give him two seasons and he’ll start struggling.. Most of you intentionally ignore the fact that this Arsenal team is a team that hardly fights or show they want trophies, that this is a team that middle table teams are not scared of and top teams fancy playing us, players will struggle in this team until this team is reshuffled, that’s just the truth.
        Juventus fancy free transfers and over seventy percent of the free transfers they’ve ever gotten turned into world beaters, they don’t have a creative midfielder and they could’ve spent the money to sign another player but they chose Ramsey and agreed to pay him that amount, in a team balanced and complete like Juventus, Ramsey will be better than he was for us

        1. Nobody knows whether those stars would struggle or not at Arsenal, but I believe that they could help Arsenal a lot if they joined in their primes like Sanchez

          I agree that Ramsey could succeed at Juventus, because Juventus have a highly established system and the other Serie A teams are currently having problems

          I still remember how the Calciopoli scandal relegated Juventus forcefully and I wonder whether those mafiosos are still ruling or not

    2. This ludicrously awarded contract will become Juventus’ financial burden. If they are stupid enough- which they have proved they ARE – to awrd this SLIGHTLY abobe average player this sort of ridiculous salary, they weil,. take the consequences. Just as we at Arsenal are now doing with the almost financially equally stupid decision on Ozils wage hike contract. Made even more so when you reflect that Ozil is about two years older than Ramsey. From our viewpoint the new regime at least had the sense to undo the offer made to Ramsey beforehand. In fact, ONCE Emery had a real chance to see the limitations of this so called “superstar.” We escaped the second bullet; pity the first so badly wounded us!

  2. Lol, doesn’t matter if we think he’s worth it or not. He’s getting it and it only proves Juventus really saw something in him.
    Folks on here were all spewing stuffs like he’ll never play for a top club, he’s bang average, no top club will come for him.
    The man held negotiations with Barcelona before agreeing with Juventus while PSG, Bayern Munich and Manchester United were interested in him. Still yet most fans think he had nothing to offer us, I always said I wanted him to stay, even if we ended up getting world class players all over the field, Ramsey is a player that will be best for rotation and switching play. Pep has so many stars under him, yet he controls them all, and they all share a fantastic relationship, everyone understands that everyone has to play and play good.
    Back here at Arsenal we have no world class midfielders, but the one still good enough, we let him go for free… and oh, I don’t think Szczesny will ever get tired of taking slight dig at us, especially how the club handles training.

    “Welcome to Juve family! Get yourself ready for hard work. The next few years is all about winning! PS. What’s my commission?”…..

      1. Eddie, this was a player that held talks with some of the top clubs in Europe and yet we still get people on here calling him an average player!!!

        It takes a certain kind of person to admit they have made a mistake, but even when seeing the array of top clubs who wanted him, still try and belittle his talents and can’t admit they got it wrong. Unbelievable.

        Like you I never wanted him to go, until he held the club to ransom.
        That’s the only reason I turned against him.

        Any so called football fan who couldn’t see the talents this player had, should hold their heads in shame and take on board the clubs you mentioned as proof of their ignorance.
        Harsh but true, whoever, respect to those who see they got it wrong.
        At least we know UE still respects the player and his abilities, still selects him and wanted him to stay.

        But his salary is so obscene it makes me feel sick to be honest.
        I’ve already said my piece on that, just want to wish him all the best and thank him for the great memories and those so important fa cup goals.

        1. Ken like you, I’m tired of our fan base, they’ll always make claims mostly without backing em up with facts and even when you point out the facts for them, they’ll ignore it just to satiate their own ego. Add to this Ramsey discussion, the fact that after all the names most have labelled Ozil, PSG are interested in having him, but it won’t mean a thing to them. Again to satiate their ego, they’ll ignore that fact and still tell you how useless both of them are

          1. But why do this?
            What’s the point?
            My view is that, as a football fan, I leave the tactical side of things to those who have been on courses, trained, and had years of top level football experience, when evaluating all things to do with football.
            I have my opinions, often to be proved wrong, views and listen to other such like “qualified fans”.
            Great debates and discussions happen, with passion always shown.
            But when something happens like Ramsey being signed by a club like Juventus and fans on here STILL insist he is just an average player we won’t miss!

            So Barca, Bayern, PSG, Man Utd etc. are really that dumb they all wanted this mediocre, clueless, weedy player and are that good we won’t miss him.

            Why did PSG want to loan a player who has no backbone, is mentally frail, doesn’t give 100% and is knackered after 15 minutes?

            The strange thing is, we never get a direct answer to these questions do we?
            A sideways shift about their salaries, the workrate, the tactics…all BS to deflect the truth.

            All football experts…at avoiding the straightforward question!

            1. you do , you just chose to to answer back :)…you asked the same question a few days ago about ozil’s state of mind and i gave you a dissertation!!! still haven’t heard from you?

              he is average his stats prove that would like me to reveal that to you, I don’t think you should feel like we lost someone thats not easy to replace, he might do well in the italian league, but he has beem inconsistent for us and i for one will not be wishy washy about being happy he is out…he might do amazing in the italian league as it’s much slower, but if you think he has been the superstar for us in the past decade here are his stats to remind you:

              256 appearances 38 goals 46 assists….lost more duels than he has won in midfield 1053 to 1283 so less than 50 % not great for protection, amd his shooting acc is 34 %, this season’s pass percentage 80 so where is this superstar you seem to have awakened and realized he is like losing sanchez or RVP to Arsena…. or is it that 400 k was spent on him that means he’s amazing?

              i see people buying expensive and ugly cars/houses/paintings/clothes/etc…. all the time doesn’t mean they have taste, it just means they can spend the money!!

              Ps: the commercial and shirt sales alone would recoup alot of that wage, and it’s good for their unwatched league they need the names to bring that league back from the dead, everyone tunes in to the PL the italian league was in the early 90’s, and in the PL ramsey’s stats are above, so don’t worry dude and stop flipping sides 🙂

  3. Allow us to hear words, I’m happy for him. Despite his love, and commitment and contribution to the club, he is forced out.

  4. The GBP400k includes his signing on fee paid over the term of his contract.its not and its euros not pounds

    1. Sorry to disappoint you Billy…. He’ll be getting paid 400 pounds before tax not Euro, and every news outlets starting from BBC who first reported it all pointed it out to be pounds … the signing on fee is not included and will cost Juventus 3.24 million pounds(€3.7)

      1. Hello Eddie,
        you are really happy for him and this 400 k like you will receive some too?
        or just proud like daddy Wenger is right now?
        Ha ha ha

        1. And many on here share this happiness for Ramsey, i would personally boo him if he was offered 400k pw and turned it down plus i dont think anyone is that loyal lol. get that bread boy u deserve it

        2. Maks sorry to say this but that’s a lame comment you made right there, while you try to paint this into some sort of agenda or admiration bout a player, I’m more worried we are losing him when we don’t even have players to replace him.
          If you find this funny, you must really think Barcelona were stupid to hold talks with him then, or the likes of PSG and Munich were dumb, and who’s your daddy?

        3. Or you expected me to worry and sulk because he will be earning that amount??
          My brain and mind don’t work like that man, you can try to paint him bad or joke about how much he’s earning, that’s his wage and it’s good for him, I have no bitterness or anger or the will to boo and bad mouth him if he earns that much…
          He worked hard to get to the spot he is today, get up work hard too, be a footballer, boxer, whatever you want, be one and earn thousands too instead of trying to gloat like it’s a sad thing he’s earning that much.
          The world is bigger than you might view it, don’t live inside your head

    2. It’s about 325k a week minus the signing on fee I think it works out about 150k-160k a week so it’s not the 400k being reported like you said billy .
      Pretty much the same situation that we have found ourselves in with ozil ,we’ve pretty much subsided his signing on fee because we didn’t want to lose him so in fact ozils weekly wage would have been a lot less .

  5. Sad to see him go ,he always gave all for the club, only gladiz and Wenger giving that lazy little natzi 350 grand a week Ramsey would be finishing his career with us

  6. “At his age, he’s worth at least £30-40m. Juventus are saving so much money even with what they are paying him. It is a move that makes sense to everybody other than the club he is leaving.” – Haha. Sums up Arsenal.

  7. Pointless comments.

    1. Ramsey has been fit for 25 games per season – cannot build a team around him.
    2. Only really good as a box-to-box – If a manager (like Emery, Sarri and many others) doesn’t favor that position, paying him anything over 150.000 would have been foolish. Okay, let’s say 200.000, but that would be pushing it.

    Arsenal made the right choice once it was clear last year that Ramsey was looking for a masive pay increase.

    We can get similar quality players in Spain who will play for 100.000 – 150.000 per week and whose value will increase unlike Ramsey’s.

    That said, I wish the lad well. He might not get injured as much in Italy, and he’ll be a useful squad player for Juventus…

    1. your last paragraph, you still don’t get it do you?? Ramsey will not be a squad player. He’s replacing Khedira

      1. he is gone and people will still hate on him smh, yes arsenal have overpaid for players but you really think juventus will spend 400k on a squad player lol. Ramsey’s success doesnt in any way affect us from next season why cant we just be happy for him?

      2. Eddie, Depends what you mean by “replacing” surely? Merely wearing his same number shirt and playing in same position is not TRUE “replacement”. I call it downgrading! JUVENTUS AND THEIR FANS WILL THINK THE SAME A YEAR FROM NOW!

        1. Jon have you been following Juventus fan sites and blogs?? How old is Khedira now? The have no better midfielder anymore other than Matuidi, they signed Emre Can on a free but he’s not really cutting it and not the answer, he’s getting into the first eleven of that team except you want to tell me that Emre Can is a better footballer compared to Ramsey, or that Sami Khedira is still the same player he was.
          I don’t see how it’s a downgrade.
          Ramsey is gone and that’s it, I think its gotten to the point where we all just stop trying to make him look terrible, this chapter is over please

  8. I don’t think anyone is worth that amount either but Juventus obviously do. Putting it in perspective, €400k a week is just over €20 million a year and as we missed out on a €40 million fee for him, Juve are “quids”in, don’t know what the euro equivalent of that phrase is?

  9. the wage is not 400k rather about 155k-165k. the signing on fee equate to about 400k a week. God these media report are misleading.

    1. www(dot)independent(dot)co(dot)uk/sport/football/transfers/aaron-ramsey-juventus-arsenal-contract-salary-transfer-news-a8774521.html

      www(dot)telegraph(dot)co(dot)uk/football/2019/02/11/aaron-ramsey-leave-arsenal-signing-400000-a-week-deal-juventus/

      You’re welcome mate

        1. ?? Nah Maks I’ll pass!! I’m not the type who fancy having pictures of players on the wall, and I’m not even sure I have a picture of Ramsey on my phone or PC, but you’d See Bellerin’s, Marco Reus, Neymar and Ozil because of their fashion sense, I don’t fancy pictures with jerseys..

  10. We will now see the best of Ramsey at Juve.
    He is a top top player (don’t care about the haters) and has proven it time and time again being the engine that makes things happen for Arsenal. Yes he has had his dips (mainly because he has not been used effectively imo) but I would have him above ozil any day of th week in my team. Man has it all.

    I once said he could maybe challenge for the balon d’Or if he kept up the form he was in scoring screamers and bossing midfield from an attack sense. People laughed but at Juve he has more chance now of standing on the winners regards strum perhaps challenging his teammate Ronaldo for it!?;)

    Whatever AFC have shown incompetence and lack of ambition as is per the norm these days under Stan Stan the moneyball man.

    1. If there is one league he could maybe shine in its Series A. But I still suspect that in a short time he won’t be a starter.

    2. I would have expected this way over the top hyped RAMSEY nonsense to have come from his wife, or family member. Perhaps you ARE a family member ! No other RATIONAL explanation. Unless you are trying to become his next agent.
      Your final Kroenke paragraph shows you still have a grasp of reality, at least with Kroenke. Though NOT with Ramsey.

  11. rddie, go back read the report again l. there is no place it sited that that wage exclude the signing on fee. you are the only one with internet access

  12. ION it is being reported as well that Mesut Ozil’s relationship with Arsenal is at breaking point with increasing concerns regarding his immune system and fragility. Apparently he has missed as many games as he has played and there are doubts the club is getting value for money with his 350k a week pay packet. Story is on Mirror.

  13. This is why players are running down contracts. In the advise of their agents. When a club has no transfer fees to pay they strike what looks like a highly inflated wage package.

    But this salary will include upwards of 20% for his agent – who took Ramsay from his previous employers and promised him one last big contract.
    So £19.3m a year or even £76,800 over 4 years before tax. Juve will get a third back on shirt sales and all the promo work Ramsay will do…

    But the point is, like de gea like martial like emran can like Sanchez… more and more players are running down contracts.

    Ramsay won and helped us won things at arsenal in a period where we hadn’t tasted glory for a long while. He got a lot of stick from fans. I feel the same fans also moaned about him going and blaming the board…

    The fun world of a footy fan…full of irony

      1. Yes we aren’t getting nothing and we fans are largely to blame for that. How many times in a day we say are players are crap. On every blog, vlog, Twitter, instagram, Facebook, imo etc you will see one Arsenal fan or groups of us slating every of our players for one reason or the other. Every pundits that worth the sort in football made there names with negative narrative about us and our players. They over exaggerate and overanalyze Arsenal related issues.!They have nothing good to say about us and our players and when they do have anything good talk about our players it will still be narrated in the negative light of other players and the club. Eg Sanchez how he is too good for Arsenal blah blah blah. I don’t even want to talk about the media. Constantly we are telling the whole world our players are not good enough and even quoting ridiculous values for them and we expect other clubs to pay huge amount of money for them. Any club that needs our players dont need to send their scouts because we have done it for them. All they need is to come to justarsenal, legrove etc or watch aftv, Wright YouTube channel ,podcast that are Arsenal related etc to get the ideal of what bid to put forward for our players if they are desperate to get or wait until the player rundowns his contract. Isco was quoted as a 75m target by mancity. 75m for a player in Ozil state with less stats and not of the same qualities as Oui. Another player is Hame Rodriguez for 65m. These are the values that has never being associated withOzil and will never be because we let the football world think he is crap. Chelsea’s Odoi for 45m, wait till any club wants Nelson and see how he will be valued.

      2. Getting nothing hurts.
        The only saving grace would be for Ramsey to score the winning goal in the UEL final against Chelsea as then I would value that goal at about £40 million XD

        Joking aside, it is rage inducing to see Arsenal flail around in player sales. I have been tempted to look at our sales over the past 5 years and see what they are valued at… Compare it to what we got.

        Tempted but the result… I fear it will make me depressed so not done it.

        1. Plus the fact that he’s joining a club where he might actually score a CL winner next season as well.

          Perhaps we should all step back, take a deep breath and anaylise our current group of players again.
          UE showed during the earlier part of the season that he can coach players described on here as dross, weedy and useless into a squad that believed in itself again.

          Are our players that bad, is it the manager, is it the tactics, or is it us, the fans, who believe we know everything and contribute absolutely nothing with this constant rubbishing of our players?
          We know it reaches them, just ask AMN and Bellerin from last season.

  14. When a club buys a player they calculate the cost of the purchase price plus the cost of the salary over the contract minus revenues from media rights and shirt sales etc.

    Ramsey is probably a 30 million player who they got for free. This allowed them to offer him a ridiculous salary. Had they paid 30 or 40 million for him he would not have managed to negotiate that salary.

  15. Thats how much he sees his worth. Thats his self worth. If he believes he is worthy enough to be paid 400k a week for his service then you have no choice but to agree with him. Arsenal didn’t value him that much to pay for his service. Juventus does so Don’t come here complaining. How much do you think you are worth??? And what would you do if someone is ready to offer you what you think you are worth? That’s my

  16. The real problem is the former regime allowed Ramsey to stall on renewing his contract, instead of giving him the ultimatum; sign or we will sell you and make some money.

    Whether we should or even could keep him after that is another matter. If the 400k a week is true, how much should we then have paid him to stay.
    Would he even have stayed for 200k a week??

    I don’t think we should have paid even 200k a week, as there are many players more valuable than him playing at lower salaries. On top of that he has been injured a lot, so he is a bit of a lottery ticket.

    But good luck to him. He does seem like a nice guy.

    1. AndersS, the new regime took over contract negotiations two seasons ago under the leadership of Gazidis.
      Eighteen months and more to sort out a new contract should have been enough time to sort this out surely?
      The blame for this one lies totally at the feet of those who either couldn’t or didn’t want to negotiate AND the player and his agent who held the club to ransom.

  17. Nope, Ramsey is not gonna get any better than what he is right now, so we need to look forward and focus on players we really need, like defenders (RB/LB/CB) and wingers (RW/LW).

  18. Depends on your perspective.

    If a company earns enough to pay employees those figures then one could argue that it is fine.

    One could have the perspective that they do not get anywhere near that and as such, no one should get that much.

    I am of the opinion that it is fine for him to earn that much, it is down to the gov to tax fairly and allow the low/non earners to get aid, the UK could tax more and in the end it would be the people who benefitted from star players pay rises. Put all the effort of moaning about a players wage into making a political statement… That is if you really are disgusted with how much some get while others get very little. It is a social issue which can only be resolved by a social change.

    I’m gonna moan a bit more…

    I have read for years upon years about this role or that role doesn’t deserve to be paid what they are paid, we can go right back throughout history and find this moan! I feels strongly about poverty in the UK, I see the rising homeless and for me, I do find this unfair.

    I always talk about a universal income, a way to ensure the worst off have a minimum standard in life, allow people to chase their dreams and if they are successful then pay the tax to help that system to keep providing.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors