It looks very much like at the end of this, his 11th year at Arsenal, Aaron Ramsey will be heading somewhere new.
It is a case that captures every element of a contract expiry saga: a set of fans who would rather not see him go, an employer that refuses to budge in the face of extreme player power, and a number of high-profile suitors waiting to swoop, as cliché dictates they must, even if in reality it is more of a sidle, or possibly even so brazen as a saunter.
When it comes to players on a free transfer, you can’t really ask for much more than what Ramsey offers. If he came up in such a way on Football Manager, you would snap him up, if only so you could try to flog him for £20m the following January. When you consider that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain cost £35m, the sum of £0 for Ramsey seems very appealing indeed.
True, inconsistency remains a bit of an issue, but when he is on his game, there are very few midfielders in the Premier League who can match Ramsey’s quality: those trademark bursts into the box, excellent link-up play, and, when at his best, an uncanny knack for scoring valuable match-saving goals.
Ramsey is also in his testimonial year despite being just 27 and thus theoretically only just coming into his prime, if those Master League growth projection charts in Pro Evolution Soccer are anything to go by, and I think we all know that they absolutely are.
Yet Ramsey stands poised to leave Arsenal next summer, with his contract talks having collapsed and a number of clubs interested in his signature (by which I mean that they want him to sign a contract with them, and not that he is some kind of unexpectedly brilliant calligrapher, though let’s be honest, he does look like a man who values excellent penmanship and has a selection of hand-picked stationery explicitly for this purpose.)
Bayern Munich are reportedly leading the charge, though Manchester United are known to be long-term admirers, and it would be exceptionally Arsenal for one of their best players of recent years to head to one of the Manchester clubs in exchange for little to no money.
Arsenal have come under plenty of criticism for allowing this situation to come about, but it is easy to see their point of view, too. Ramsey has only made 30 or more Premier League appearances in three of his 10 full seasons at the club, and although he has appeared in all of their league games this season, he has averaged just 46.25 minutes per game. That’s hardly enough to justify contract demands that would make him one of the highest-paid players at the club, regardless of his tenure.
As such, the decision to decisively declare the negotiations closed makes sense for Arsenal. As with many clubs, they will feel uncomfortable with the power players hold as they draw close to the end of their contracts, and their public refusal to countenance further talks with the Welshman and his representatives feels like a club making a statement: “if you want to be here, great, let’s talk. If you don’t, fine, but don’t mess us about.”
That policy will feel very misguided if it results in one of their most talented players leaving on a free transfer, but you can understand how Arsenal might see this stance as an effective way of asserting their position for future negotiations; they have effectively pre-emptively called the bluff of any ones of their players whose contract comes up for renewal over the next few years. Given Ramsey’s injury record and long service, he is both expendable yet the perfect figure on whom to enact this example.
That all said, it is unlikely that fans will care too much about such grandstanding if, indeed, it leads to yet another of their most talented players leaving, a trend that has afflicted the club for years, from Emmanuel Adebayor to Cesc Fabregas to Kolo Toure to Robin Van Persie to Bacary Sagna to Samir Nasri to Alexis Sanchez. If Ramsey’s potential departure feels more than a little bit raw, that is totally understandable.
For the player himself, though, this represents an enormous opportunity. Football careers are short, and he choose his next employer knowing his new contract is likely to be the last one on which he holds the best cards. He will also be mindful that for a player with a decade at a Top Six club under his belt, he has amassed an alarmingly small trophy collection: three FA Cups and two Community Shields.
As such, a move to Bayern makes a huge amount of sense for Ramsey – particularly given their current struggles, however counter-intuitive that might seem, because they will be looking for a new talisman to build the team around. The four attacking midfielders currently supporting Robert Lewandowski include 34-year-old Arjen Robben, 35-year-old Franck Ribery, and 29-year-old Thomas Muller. At 27 – the same age as the final member of that quartet, Thiago Alcantara – Ramsey would be positively youthful.
Hopefully, whatever Ramsey decides, things will be wrapped up shortly. The more protracted these things get, the uglier they tend to be for everyone concerned.
Steven Chicken is on Twitter
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