Mikel Arteta believes Aaron Ramsdale would be unwise to leave Arsenal during the winter transfer window. The Englishman is without a doubt Arsenal’s second-choice goalkeeper, having only appeared twice in the last 13 Arsenal games, both of which were in the Carabao League Cup. He hasn’t appeared in the league or the Champions League since the September international break.
With the Euros slated for next summer, Ramsdale needs to play more in the next few months. Gareth Southgate cautioned Ramsdale that he needs to play more, because he can’t promise he’ll be in his team when the next international break arrives if he hasn’t been playing frequently.
“We’ll just have to see how things go. I had that conversation with him in the last camp,” Southgate said via Sky Sports. “He’s still fighting for the No. 1 spot at Arsenal, and his profile and the way he can use the ball with his feet is something we like and think is important.”
“But there is a reality as a keeper. if we get to March and he’s six months without playing regularly, then I’m never going to promise things that I couldn’t guarantee delivering. So he knows that; he’s perfectly realistic about that.”
While Southgate warns Ramsdale, Mikel Arteta has intimated that Ramsdale might still get plenty of time to play. The Spaniard says Ramsdale, who he thinks is still vital to his squad, will still play a significant role for Arsenal this season. That is why he does not want him to make a hasty choice about his Arsenal future during the winter transfer window.
Via Arsenal.com Arteta said, “Well, first of all, my door is open to speak to any player, we just want the best for our players, and we try to do that. We know the influence that we can have, sometimes positively, sometimes not so positively towards them, but we will always try to do our best to help them, but this is a team sport that needs 24 players that have to fulfil a role.
“And the role that you have in August, it might be very different to the one you have in March. So making early decisions, in my experience, is not something good at all, because the team has certain needs that has to be accomplished,”.
“And in order to do that, you cannot do it with six, 10 or 14 players. It is impossible. So you need everyone and Aaron has a really important role in the team.”
Arsenal can’t afford to lose Ramsdale in the middle of the season. It’s unfortunate that he has to deal with being second choice, but he simply has to keep working hard in training; at 25, he’s still young and has plenty of time to reverse his fortunes, and considering his new wife has only this morning had her and Aaron’s first child, he has probably had many distractions and has been very preoccuupied lately.
Daniel O
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