What to do with Ramsey?
Greetings fellow gunners, I’m sure that many of you have heard about how the contract talks between Ramsey and AFC hierarchy have stalled, it appears as if the Marmite Midfielder will be leaving the Emirates at the end of his contract, if not sooner.
Ramsey came to us with a lot of promise and he initially shown some good form which got us drooling over the prospect of him and Wilshere maturing together in the middle of the park. He then suffered that brutal MMA style tackle from the Neanderthal called Shawcross, the promise was cut short and the rest is history, as some would say.
When he came back from that nightmare we all appeared to notice a lack of fight in tackles, as if he was scared to risk himself in 50/50 challenges, he started to play with a handbrake on when it came to his defensive duties. Going forward was not a problem as he wasn’t the style of player to invite the fouls, Wenger encouraged the attacking mentality and this looked like the beginning of the end, we all had hoped he would bounce back from that nightmare period but over months he had proved he was a shadow… Until Arteta came to us. For a few months, not even half a season, Ramsey was putting in defensive duties while bombing forward and being involved in the goals, this short period of time has been his best ever period of football for me personally. I was so impressed with him that I thought he could grow and replace Vieira, a player who would defend and get forward to drive the team onto victories, high praise but his form in that short period demanded such praise.
He played with passion and desire, commitment and dedication, Fighting with a winners mentality. Then he got injured again and he came back as the shadow of the player he could be and he has never truly rid himself of this problem.
For someone with so much potential it is hard to argue that he should be paid for it as well, although it is hard to argue against it, I do feel we have just the reason to feel upset over this, we have given him time to overcome his issues and he has failed to do so for many years. Can we keep believing in his promise over current form? How about supporting his potential by paying him a massive payrise? I can’t and I can’t blame any other fellow supporter for feeling like they are at their whit’s end with him. However I do admire supporters who can keep their support going, while a player wears our famous badge then I do think we should try to support them the best we can. I am disappointed in myself for losing patience with our FA Cup hero.
All of that doesn’t change how we feel, we may wish to be utopian in our morals but we are human, we have our limits and some people have seen that limit not only crossed by decimated. So for people like me who have seen enough of him take us for granted, I dare say we are all happy to consider how to best profit from this let down.
Should we sell him in Jan? How about a trade instead? Let him run his contract down and be grateful we can allocate his wages towards either a signing we need or to reward a player who deserves it?
For me, all of those options have interesting avenues, the most appealing though could be a trade. Straight player swaps do not happen often but we did with UTD for Mkhitaryan, why not again?
Antony Martial? In his last 12 months, according to transfermarket.co.uk, his contract runs out on the 30th of June 2019. Arsenal could do with some more width and this young man has qualities oozing from him, he could compete for one of the inside forward roles which Emery appears to want to play.
Another wide player is Sterling, he has yet to sign a new deal with City and contract runs until 30th June 2020, this is according to transfermarket.co.uk, I will use this site for contract dates for consistency. Sterling has proven he can perform on the right, he has shown he knows how to score and he could thrive with a CF of Lacazette quality, not only a fantastic goal getter but a player who brings in the wide players with great effect. This could be hard to convince Sterling but if we could then it could very well sort the right hand side out for us.
These thoughts interest me, what would you do with Ramsey?
Would you ignore him and let his contract run down? Sell him in Jan even if it means a low fee? Aim to do a swap like we did for Alexis? Or are you one of the supporters who thinks he can come good still?
Article by Midkemma.