Money spent on Ramsdale is proving to be a bargain
When Aaron Ramsdale was being linked to a move to Arsenal, there was massive outcry on all social media platforms.
The fans begged their club to not pursue the deal for a 23-year-old goalkeeper, who had been relegated from the Premier League twice.
They didn’t want a keeper who had one of the worst stats in the league. They didn’t want the club to spend £30m on a shot-stopper who would start as a second choice. They didn’t want Arsenal to spend such a massive fee when there were other, more important positions, which needed investment.
Since Aaron Ramsdale came into the team only Chelsea (2) and Man City (3) have conceded fewer goals than Arsenal (4).
— Orbinho (@Orbinho) October 30, 2021
And just like a storm, Ramsdale has run over those comments, leaving behind nothing.
He has turned the doubters into believers and is already seen as a fan favourite. The England international’s performance against Leicester City solidified the trust of the Gunners faithful on their brand-new goalkeeper.
The moment of the match came in the 42nd minute, when the young shot-stopper parried James Maddison’s free-kick onto the crossbar.
Arsenal should spend £30m on back-ups more often. @AaronRamsdale98 WOW. 😍
— Connor Humm (@TikiTakaConnor) October 30, 2021
Despite getting a bit of luck due to the spin of the ball, the former Sheffield United man deserved every bit of credit for his heroic save. The only thing missing was a cape.
Aaron Ramsdale made more saves against Leicester than any other goalkeeper has in an away game in the Premier League this season (8).
He deserves every bit of credit he has received until now. It’s never easy when you join a club, and the fans are against the move.
However, his inner motivation to surge above those comments was always higher and louder. He has already said that his goal is to be a starter for England in next year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Arsenal board backed Mikel Arteta at the beginning of the new season after poor results. He’s doing a great job now – team back at very good level. ⚪️🔴 #AFC
…and new signings by Edu performing so well, no more criticism for £30m goalkeeper Ramsdale who was incredible today. pic.twitter.com/po2u6BEfYQ
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 30, 2021
But manager Mikel Arteta was quick to point out that the goalkeeper needs to “keep his feet on the earth.”
“I think when you dream big, it is always positive,” said the Spaniard.
“Keep your feet in the earth, there are people who make those decisions, but he needs to be doing what he’s doing every day.
The former Arsenal captain continued, “Train the way he trains, look after himself the way he does, have that mentality he has, and good performances. The rest will come.”
The last sentence needs more spotlight. “The rest will come.”
Ramsdale has made Arsenal fans dreaming of big things.
He has made himself the very fabric of Arsenal Football Club. And as Arsene Wenger said, “We don’t buy superstars, we make them.” That certainly sounds appropriate here.
No need to rub it in. He is our goal keeper. I was one to seriously doubt the time and energy wasted on signing him because I thought we had bigger problems to fix. But what can you say? Buy of the season? And then again, should we be surprised? The practice he has been getting over the past two seasons is the ultimate test. Ramsdale deserves every reward. For his and Arsenal’s fortune’s may it continue.
Well put joe
Is yash saying he knew that Ramsdale would be as good as he’s been I watched him the last 2 seasons and quite frankly he looked awful,always a good stopper but mistake ridden from what I watched ,obviously now playing with better players and having more cover as made him shine .
Dan kit ” and quite frankly he looked awful,always a good stopper but mistake ridden from ” are you sure you are not talking about Leno Dan. . But I have to agree with you, nobody can say he knows Ramsdale would be an instant success.
The critics need to be called out for the rubbish they wrote before the player even had the opportunity to show his potential to the team.
No one can say they knew he would become an instant success but the amount of vitriol he received was ridiculous and in some cases disgraceful.
He was a young goalkeeper who was left hopelessly exposed whilst playing for Sheffield. This was noted by some analysts at the time. However, in order to further a negative narrative of Arsenal’s management this was irresponsibly overlooked by many commentators on this and other sites.
What I said the day we signed him.
“Not sure why I saw some say he was the reason Sheffield went down, he won player of the season for them.
He will be better on the ball than Leno and at crosses which I know concerns a lot of people with Leno. Shot stopping in general isn’t bad either. 23, fills a HG slot nothing to hate. Time will tell if he is outright number 1 material but certainly not a huge amount of difference between him and Martinez especially on the 2 traits people liked with Martinez vs Leno namely distribution/cross claiming.”
Probably would of been better saying command of the area than cross claiming but whatever.
No one expected him to win people over quite in the way he has but pretending he was awful or that nobody saw him being good is an outright lie. He won player of the season for his club last year and was already in the England set-up and very highly spoken of in those circles. Certainly there were some of us that were quite happy with his signing.
@Dankit, I didn’t know he was that good. I’ve not written the headline and I also don’t want to criticize our fanbase for what they said in the summer
Yea my bad mate ,should have known that wasn’t your header ,my apologies buddy .
Ramsdale has been a breath of fresh air. Always knew he was a solid gk, just needed better players around him as compared to what he had at Bournemouth and Sheffield.
Its so good to watch the team this days and be so confident we have a keeper that is ready to shut strikers put.
Almost like what Chelsea have with Mendy. Ramsdale still has a lot of room for improvement. Seems a humble lad
Shut strikers out*
Nice write-up. I hope when he makes mistakes, we won’t immediately start condemning him and make him feel worthless.
Arsenal fans have done that over the years and many of our once good players have fallen away after criticism despite starting of very well
You mean Abit like when that happened to Leno
So true Wale, this is why I have also felt Leno has been wrongly done by. The spotlight was always on him regardless of how crappy the rest of the team including the manager had been.
Thanks @Wale, means a lot
That’s one of the problems with “some” of our fanbase.
They are always ready to castigate players and make judgements such as “Kolasinac will never wear our shirt again”.
Been watching Martinez in the villa drubbing, what about those fans who decried Ramsdale when we had him?
Watched West Ham as well and who was in goal?
You’ve guessed it…. another “dross” keeper!!!!
Leno is a very good keeper and I hope we can keep him.
A R wasn’t bought in to be “back up” ( and not being wise after the event – said this at the time).
As is now patently obvious M A / Edu saw a number of character traits that Aaron possesses that were lacing in Leno , and indeed throughout the side.
Ramsdale CHARACTER, PERSONALITY & CONFIDENCE were the icing on the cake to him being a very good goalkeeper, possessing excellent distribution and already being a very good professional at such a young age.
24 M and rising – far too much came the cry.
His value has increased already !
As with the entire process, thought needed to be given to each phase as to exactly where we were / are.
The 2 x 8th finishes under M A was always far too simplistic to trot out.
Remember “You can’t polish a turd”.
The turd has now been flushed.
We are seeing the germs of an Arteta side, which surely MOST would agree looks promising.
A long way to go, and much to do – but at LONG LAST issues are being addressed and we are adding forward.
On to Watford at home.
Yours, An opinionated old git.
Amongst other grammatical cock ups, just to correct “adding forward” to “edging forward”.
Far better on the laptop than these bloody mobile phones !
AJ. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH PLEASURE YOUR REGULAR SENSIBLE POSTS GIVE ME!
I will be sending in an article for tomorrows JA later today on why so many fans are, even now, still so relentlessly negative.
Needless to add, that does not include you.
From a fellow opinionated old git but a fellow clear sighted one too!
Can not wait for your Article jonny boy ,I’m counting down the minutes .
Thank you Jon.
I have to say with each passing week, the continued negativity, despite clear evidence to the contrary, grates more and more.
The clear intent of some waiting for all to fall apart once again, is really quite unbelievable.
It’s so easy to hold such an extreme view on an issue, to let clear logical thinking go completely out of the window.
Even well won , hard earned victories now get met without comments akin to trying to start an old banger empty of petrol …..but, but, but, but !
For the thinking fan of our great club
( formed in 1886 not 2004, as some seem to think) the initiatives taken of late, and the effect they continue to have, are due much credit.
I look forward to your article.
By the way , I thought you were coming on to correct my grammar and spelling Mr President.
From one O O G to another- with pride.
Friday night only 4x releases from ramsdale went astray. Knows when to start at the back, excellent in the loooong ball into the mide or getting the front to start to move. Brilliant.
and some wanted Brendon to replace Mikel
Some wanted Leno over Ramsdale
Some wanted Ozil to play so that ESR never got a chance
Some wanted Willock to stay so that Sambi would not be here
Some wanted Kolasinac so that Nuno would not be here
Some wanted Bellerin to stay so that we would not have Tomiyasu here
Some wanted Saliba to stay so that he never gets top flight experience and flops at a young age.
Some wanted Guendozi to stay so that he can cause nuisances out here rather than going on loan and getting better
Glad that Mikel stood his ground and done whats best for us and our beloved club. He proved all the haters wrong yet again.
Cringe
DAN, What a silly and juvenile comment from a fan who relentlessly refuses to use his perfectly good brain and who seems to actually WISH us to fail, just so that he can continue his quest to slaughter Arteta at every opportunity!
Thanks jonny boy 👍
My post once again disappeared !
LC let’s wait till the end of the season to see if Arteta really proved us all wrong, there’s still a long way to go
we’re doing it again. folks, it’s october, and saying all the right decisions have been made. i hope they have, but it all comes down to where we finish the season. first run of good form in almost a year and we are saying mikel right all along. 🙄
AJ
Ramsdale was an Arteta pick not Edu. Edu was bringing in Kia Joorabchan GK called Neto of Barcelona Edu also wanted to buy Coutinho and Arteta said no.
Havyn I’m sure you have more inside source and more information than Fabrizio Romano so I would believe you and not him.
Hi Havyn.
My post stated”MA / Edu”.
So yes Ramsdale had Arteta written all over it ( a la Ben White) – great management eh), but transfers are a multi- faceted activity so simply cited both M A / Edu as a team.
Neto was never Arsenal’s priority, according to my understanding
His distributions and passing accuracy surprised me
I believe Leno’s abilities aren’t far behind though. Leno just fell into a comfort zone, because there was no strong GK competition after Martinez left
If Leno leaves, we could be back to square one. Ramsdale could regress because of no strong competition, like what happened to Tierney when he was the only specialist LB in the squad
I think the club has rly shown ruthlessness (as Arteta pointed out) in the transfer window. They let Willian go while they also spent a huge fees on Ramsdale when they had a satisfactory option in Leno.
Kudos to Kroenke for sticking with Arteta
Ramsdale deserves all the credit he has been given, and so far it looks like a fantastic addition.
But honestly, it only takes 2-3 mistakes at the wrong time to change the picture, so let’s not go over the top just yet.
thank you for being realistic. if we drop points in our next two games, lets see what ppl are saying? Arsenal have not been a consistent team for years. I want to see the consistency for a long period of time and not get carried away. Think some commenters are desperate to claim they were right all along and blah blah blah. i dont really care about that. I want this arsenal side to show real consistency, and I’m not going to say everything is fine and dandy when it was disaster mode just a month or so ago. Doesn’t make sense.
spot on today RSH…perspective is so important
It’s not about mistakes. It’s about showing that he has talent.
He obviously has a lot of talent. But the point is, he is being hailed as a fantastic player already. We have a rich history of giving that tag to some of our new players after a short period, and then they still end up being scapegoats and called useless no matter how they perform.
I am merely calling for a more levelheaded approach, when judging.
‘and new signings by Edu performing so well, no more criticism for £30m goalkeeper Ramsdale who was incredible today’. But some were saying yesterday that it was Arteta who pushed for Ramsdale not Edu. Anyways I’m loving our defense and long may it continue.
I don’t care whose idea it was. Ramsdale was an EPL goalkeeper unlike the poor so and so, Runarsson who was out of his depth as a no2. That was a poor decision by someone.
As an aside I was sorry to read that Kieron Dyer needs a liver transplant.
I think it was only reasonable to question £30 million on Ramsdale and £50 million on White at the least
I don’t think that’s a bad thing to question or even criticize that
That said im so happy i was wrong about that. Ramsdale has been wonderful
You are absolutely right.
Moreover it’s still early days, we all wish him well and all, but let’s take it a bit easy with the over the top praises.
If no one gets critized, theres never hope if improvement. Only settling.
MA and Co. got it horribly wrong with selling Emi and acquiring Runarsson, however, they have reprimanded their error by acquiring Ramsdale.
I think now Leno will be gone sooner or later. In January which positions need strengthening?
I would say CM/DM is a must with Elneny and Partey gone and Xhaka likely unfit.
Leno, Cedric and Laca need to be replaced too but I think they’ll stay until next summer
For all those who have even suggested that the critical observers among us supporters wish for us to fail so that we can say “I told you so”, you have completely lost the plot…with this in mind, how ironic it is that many of those same individuals have raced to their respective devices to say that very same thing simply because we FINALLY showed the ability to put in back-to-back performances…all I want is for our team to return to prominence, regardless of the players on the pitch or the manager in charge…that said, when I don’t see the requisite improvements or progression, I will always offer up my opinions in this regards…obviously, sometimes my assessments will be proved wrong, but more often than not, they have had considerable merit…in the end, I want only one thing, a future where our club matters in the grand scheme of things
No one could have imagined Ramsdale being this good and anyone saying they knew he would be are plainly lying, we took a gamble and it’s paying off superbly.. let’s just enjoy his great performances rather than calling out fans who were critical! After the international break we’ll see how far Arsenal, Arteta and Ramsdale have come as we have some huge games namely the dreaded Anfield trip and old Trafford.
OT: West Ham is annihilating Villa. Emi Martinez is having a season to forget.
Is there an agenda against Arsenal?
Laporte and now Konsa have been sent off for denying a goal scoring opportunity whilst Jonny Evans only got a yellow for the same offense.
Is there an agenda?
Emi ‘Villa is a step up’ Martinez. I’ve really enjoyed watching West Ham lately; they’ve been brilliant.
An agenda? Certainly makes you wonder..
You need to watch Sue there’s a lot of Arsenal fans very protective over Damian Martinez they’ll probably say the floodlights was blinding his view!
All he seems to do now is pick the ball out of the net 😄 Love it..
A season and a half of good performances with no fans and he’s the best keeper on the planet… The very best don’t sign for Aston Villa do they ? His departure from Arsenal has left many arsenal fans in tears and then they became hybrid Villa Arsenal fans Sue 😅 there’s a few on here who mention him every chance they get, it’s like an ex GF they can’t get over 🙄
I don’t want to sound like a smart A*se but it was never in doubt fot me.
I could see imo and that arteta didn’t believe in leno being the no1 anymore.
Randale had passed some of the hardest auditions out there whilst saving multiple points for su and Bournemouth the guy was incredible.
Good feet a top top shot adopter, brave and commanding in the air.
On top of this he’s young so has longevity and he’s English so home grown. Put like that 30m good deal I reckon. Just looked bad because as usual we got about 10p and a bag of sweets for Martinez…..the arsenal way!
What I do love about ramsdale is his commanding vocalist that gets the other players up for it.
Of topic anyone follow our women’s side? Top quality football the wsl now and now we’ve singed the likes of Nikita Paris and Tobin Heath were stronger than ever. Top of the league
The reason I’m posting in here is in the wsl side there is a new signing iwebuchi and Japan International watching their movement, one touch passing, flicks and chips she reminded me of one of my favourite players in little mozart Rosicky 🙂
And the Irish lb Kstie Maccabe plays like Tierney.
Every Arsenal player deserves support especially when they are not playing well……Ramsdale has done well so far but there may be unpleasant moments too. He will need our support. I think Leno will be sold in the summer. Arteta is most likely going to promote the 2 young goalies.
Ramsdale is extraordinary and wonderful. Deserves every bit of praise. He kept us in the game at Leicester throughout. The save from Madison was out of the world. However, what is worrrying is that we allowed so many shots on goal, specially in the second half. Had it not been for Ramsdales heroics, we would have lost the game. MA should look into the matter and ensure we dont concede so many shots on goal putting our GK under tremendous pressure.
2 key points for me. .
To be a top team in this league you need to concede little. For years now the top clubs have had this. City, liverpool, chelsea and man u before.
Under the purist of football we played freely and got lost in the attacks we created.
Appreciating the age old arsenal good defending culture, we can start to compete for important positions in the league.
After looking at all of the mess and appreciating this is Arteta and this new teams first match in packed stadiums, I thought it would take a year before we get back into europe.
But now, we will compete at the very least. A top 4 means west ham man u and a possible resurgent spurs no doubt.
Now that we can be more sure of our defence, we can work on getting Odegaard Pepe and Martinelli ticking with the squad.
I dont have doubts. I seen Leno Eddie Kosalinac M.Niles Chambers (I dont include Holding because his performances have always been good in my eyes) improve.
What can we achieve?
5th would be setting the expectations for next year. Depending how far off we are from it, itl set the tone for the squad.
6th we would have to say, if I go off my previous expectations would be seen as a positive, also in the media because the next question for arsenal would be can we do it every 3 days?
7th will take us into the territory of what happened already.
The problem we have is, African cup of nations in Jan means we will lose players and this makes it harder to sell them still needing to go.
So trades will mean we will hopefully if the thoery is right, still buy some.
I think our defence looks like it’s on drugs and I dont know when they will wear off!!
But these are kids, we are the youngest squad assembled in the league, they look though like adults.
It’s not the end of the world if we end outside europe though mood will be damp.
To get top 4 we need to bypass west ham and man u.
I suspect man u with their players will compete hard for top 4. West ham are winning and look like they ain’t letting up. Like us if we will be happy with europe again, west ham are now that plus going for top 4.
We just need to see for how long can this 7 game run can lead to. Its 4 against, it’s a point average of 2.4, only bettered by chelsea with a current average of 2.5.
We have alot to improve on, this isnt a league run but it’s a making roadmap.
Currently our stats are inflated and I can still see its warranted yet their is areas we can improve on.
I think for me it’s this I like the most.