by Not so long ago, Aaron Ramsdale was a goalie with a long-term plan. In May last year, he signed a new contract at Arsenal and made it clear he never wanted to leave. “I don’t want to move around anymore,” he said. “I want to see my football here.”
How quickly a footballer’s life can change. How brutal this sport can be, especially for a goalkeeper. Last season, Ramsdale played every minute of every Premier League game for Arsenal. This season, in the same competition, he played in one of the last 23 games.
That one outing was against Brentford in November when David Raya was unable to play against his parent club. This weekend Arsenal face Brentford again, which means Ramsdale will be back in the team again. It will be his first game in any competition since Liverpool lost 2-0 in the FA Cup more than two months ago.
It would not be unreasonable to suggest that Saturday evening could be Ramsdale’s last appearance for Arsenal. An injury to Raya could change that in the remaining months of the campaign but, as it stands, it is difficult to see any further opportunities arising for the England international.
At the age of 25, with ambitions to become the first-choice goalkeeper for his country, it is clear that the current situation at Arsenal is not sustainable for Ramsdale. Raya will sign permanently this summer, in a deal worth around £30million, and Ramsdale will surely have to leave the Emirates Stadium if he is to breathe new life into a career that is, sadly, unchanged. stopped.
Rarely has a footballer’s path changed so dramatically and so suddenly as Ramsdale’s over the past six months. He has gone from a first-team certainty to a near-permanent substitute, through no fault of his own. This is simply a case of a very good goalkeeper being undone by a rival who, in the manager’s eyes, is even better.
“He is fully prepared,” said Ramsdale’s Mikel Arteta. “It goes really well every day. He is desperate to play like the rest of the boys who haven’t had as many opportunities and Saturday is a great day for him.
“He was brilliant, he was very good, very supportive, pushing everything in training as I expected and it’s a pleasure to have two best goalkeepers in the team.”
In the early weeks since Raya took over, it was fair to ask if the Spaniard had any merit. He looked shaky at times, and Arsenal fans weren’t convinced. The debate died, however, as Raya himself established. Arsenal have the best defensive record in the league, and Arteta spoke highly of how Raya “stops things you don’t even see sometimes”.
The question now is not whether Ramsdale can re-establish himself as Arsenal’s No. 1, but where he can move next – and whether he hopes to go to the European Championship this summer with England if he does not play again this season.
As for the first edition, it is clear that Arsenal will be hoping for a significant transfer fee for a player who has proven to be one of the most promising young goalkeepers in Europe. Arsenal initially paid £24 million to sign him from Sheffield United in 2021 and, at the very least, will no doubt want to get their money back.
The problem for Edu, Arsenal’s sporting director, is that Ramsdale’s value is diminishing with each week he spends on the bench. It is clear that his transfer value this summer will be much lower than last summer.
The other issue is that there aren’t many clear vacancies in the top tier of the Premier League. Manchester City and Liverpool have the two best goalkeepers in the division, Manchester United recently spent £47.2 million on Andre Onana, Tottenham Hotspur won gold with Guglielmo Vicario and Chelsea already have two developing young talents in Djordje Petrovic and Robert Sanchez. World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez is at Aston Villa.
Newcastle United have been mentioned as a possible destination but they have other priorities in the upcoming window, and have only signed Nick Pope in 2022. Wolves could possibly show interest, although they need to be careful with their spending.
What about West Ham United? David Moyes is a big fan of Alphonse Areola, who has impressed this season, but the club may finally be looking for someone to distribute better from the back. Areola is 31 and Lukasz Fabianski is now 38, so some kind of change is coming soon. It is hardly the most pressing concern, however.
If he is to stay in England, Ramsdale may have to drop down to a lesser team – assuming a lower side would want to invest heavily in a goalkeeper. A more exciting alternative, perhaps, would be to move to Europe, which cannot be ruled out.
Overall, then, the picture is far from clear. And certainly much less obvious than this time last year, when Ramsdale was a rising star. His fate is a lesson in the ruthlessness of football at the highest level, and further evidence of how quickly a player’s path can turn.
