After decade at the club time is running out on Aaron Ramsey as an Arsenal player. The Welsh international has entered the final year of his contract and no new deal is in sight as the two parties continue a lengthy standoff.
Ramsey is not the first Arsenal player to enter the final year of his contract, with Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil both leading the march last year before one departed for Manchester United and the latter stuck around but on far better terms.
For Arsenal then, Ramsey’s future has three possible scenarios. One – Arsenal keep the midfielder until next summer, at which point he can walk away for free and have his pick of clubs to sign for. Two – the ‘Alexis’; sell in January to the club willing to buy someone they may soon get for free but run the risk of losing to a rival. Three – break the bank, sign the lad and keep one of the longest-serving players at the club for even longer.
There is an argument in favour of each of the three options on the table, for while Ramsey brings certain qualities to the squad there are flaws in keeping the player. Most notably, breaking the bank and offering Ramsey whatever it takes to tie his future to the club would risk further destabilising the structure the Gunners have fought to build, having already caved in to keep Ozil.
Continue on this path and other players will see the Gunners as a lightweight fighting above its class whenever they sit down at the negotiation table, looking at one of England’s biggest clubs as a chance to make money as they hold all the cards.
Then again, offering Ramsey more money to stay would still work out cheaper in the long run than going out on the open market to try and bring a new face into the fold. The club would have to pay out a transfer fee to whoever the player is owned by, on top of any agent and signing-on bonuses, and who is to say the new player would be willing to take a contract that sees them earn less than what Ramsey feels he is worth?
Should Arsenal choose to let their Welsh wizard leave, the club must then surely let him go in January and take whatever they can for the player like they did with Sanchez. The grass may not necessarily be greener on the other side, but the Gunners will at least add something to whatever war chest they can put together for Unai Emery to spend.
This, though, also creates a scenario where the face of the club is being smeared through the dirt. What does it say about Arsenal when once again all the big players are either leaving or having their way at whatever cost?
The case to keep Ramsey beyond the summer is not as simple as it looks either. While Ramsey has been at Arsenal since 2008 when he joined from Cardiff as a teenager, his best position is still debatable.
Theo Walcott, another long serving Arsenal player to recently leave the club, had the same debate about him for most of his Gunners career. Eventually he stuck to the wing despite wanting to play as the main striker, and this is similar to Ramsey.
He wants to be the attacking midfielder, the one that sits in behind the striker and makes things tick. Give Ramsey this position and you are forced to shoe-horn Ozil into the side to justify the contract he is on, but he is simply not the winger the club needs and nor is the 55-cap Welshman when he gets put out wide.
Even dropping the 27-year-old back into the holding midfield two of Emery’s 4-2-3-1 formation presents issues as Ramsey will look to drive forward and be a part of the attack, leaving dangerous gaps behind.
Altogether the story suggests the best outcome for Arsenal is to sell Ramsey in the January window. But between then and now remains two months of matches and two months in which the club could re-open negotiations after appearing to have taken a deal off the table.
The agency which represents the Welsh midfielder recently tweeted, and then deleted, posts appearing to show the club have made up their mind and will let Ramsey leave, something that could be big a mistake.
After a decade at the club, Ramsey’s best spell came before the arrival of Alexis Sanchez and the freedom he had to roam the pitch and make the difference. With Sanchez now gone and Torreira beginning to show his defensive instincts in the Arsenal ranks, now may be the time Ramsey returns to his best and the club would be foolish to let that go.
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