The door is still open for Aaron Ramsey at Arsenal

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“The contract is off the table” – it could not have been any clearer from either side. The deal was off. Aaron Ramsey was free to speak to other people from January.

His agent then put another nail in the coffin with some tweets to an Arsenal fan which confirmed he was off – but didn’t want to leave.

Like everything in football; it was down to money.

He wanted a certain salary, and after about a year of negotiating both sides had seemingly come to an agreement. The contract was on the table. But then Ramsey dithered. He did not sign.

Why he and his people did not sign, we might never know. But it was this final act that led Arsenal to take to contract off the table.

There has been plenty of talk that having seen him play for 10 weeks, manager Unai Emery felt that Ramsey did not fit into his system. Certainly not with Mesut Özil in the side.

Emery wants to play 4231. Ramsey struggles in a midfield 2, often leaving his playing partner isolated and exposed. Pushing Ozil outside reduced the Germans effectiveness – and he is very effective with a goal or assist every 157 minutes in the Premier League.

So whilst Ramsey dithered, Emery made the decision that the Welshman was no longer the guaranteed starter he became under Wenger. And making a player the clubs second highest paid player – reportedly £250k a week – was an inappropriate use of club funds. That the salary could be reinvested elsewhere, on a player who is going to be starting week in week out.

So we all expected Ramsey to leave. His agent announced he was going, burning bridges in a hugely unprofessional manner. Against Fulham – even with Ozil out – he found himself on the bench. But then he showed his quality, as he was integral in starting and finishing the wonder goal.

Ramsey leaving Arsenal is not yet a done thing. He is not yet out of the door. He is still wearing the red and white. So let’s work through the scenarios.

Ramsey decides to leave.

In January he can negotiate with foreign clubs; with the view of a free transfer in the summer. Or someone might stomp up £20m to secure him for the second half of the season – remembering he will not be Champions League tied.

But where could he end up?

Money is clearly a key motivator. As is playing.

On the first factor, money, who could actually afford to pay him the £250k that Arsenal were seemingly willing too? And if we think that figure is exaggerated, who would pay him £200k?

Man City could afford him with ease. But realistically would they want or need him?

With Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva, Bernard Silva and Riyad Mahrez, they have plenty of number 10s in their squad. Investing in Ramsey wouldn’t make sense. And he would struggle to get the game time he desires, possible not even make the bench.

Liverpool have been heavily linked in recent days. But would they really be willing to pay him what he wants?

Mo Salah is reportedly their highest paid player on £200k a week. Then Firminho on £180k. Sadio Mane on just £90k. Would they make Ramsey their highest paid player? That will soon get other players knocking at the chairman’s door for more money.

And where would he actually fit in? They play a hard working midfield that frees up Salah, Mane and Firminho to attack at will. Playing Ramsey would unbalance them, like it does Arsenal.

Manchester United can afford him. And he would be a realistic target if Paul Pogba leaves. But if Pogba remains; United are in the same position as Arsenal.

Either having to play Pogba or Ramsey deep in a two or wide to accommodate the other one. Ultimately they will have a similar decision as Arsenal. Do you pay Ramsey what he wants even though he won’t start week in, week out?

Chelsea is an interesting one. They need home grown players and if Eden Hazard leaves, they might see renewing the Ramsey / Olivier Giroud as a way forward. They could be an outside bet.

As for moving abroad, I have seen AC Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich mentioned. But next summer he will be the father of 8-month old twins. Is he really going to uproot his family, away from the support network?

And can too many foreign teams afford the €11m a year he is commanding?

At Juventus, Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest paid player on €30m. Next up is Douglas Costa on just €8m. No one else is on more than €100k a year. Or £90k in British sterling. Will they break the bank for Ramsey? Making him their 2nd best paid player? On twice the much of the 3rd most paid? I doubt it.

AC Milan are no different. Only Gonzalo Higuain is on above €100k (€145k reportedly). Are they going to nearly double what he is on to get Ramsey? The Welshman will be on 3 times the salary of the next highest paid player if the match Arsenal’s reported £250k (€280) offer.

Bayern Munich certainly have a capacity to go north woods of €200k. Robert Lewandowski is on €225k. But like the other sides, would they be willing to make Ramsey the highest paid player?

Last summer they gave Leon Goretzka €190k a week. That made the German youngster their second highest paid player. Ramsey is looking at €100k more than this…

So suddenly lots of doors are shutting around Ramsey. The interest is not there at what he is demanding. It is a reality check.

Does he go to United and end up in the same situation at Arsenal, just on a higher wage? Does he wait for Chelsea to sell Hazard and hope they bring him in to replace him?

Or does he drop his salary demands to a more realistic £150k a week to generate interest from Liverpool – and certainly make Manchester United interested.

Think of that figure for a minute. £150k a week. £100k less than what was reportedly on the table at Arsenal. £5.2m a year less. Suddenly could Arsenal be interested again?

At £150k a week, Ramsey would fit in with the squads current wage structure. It would only actually be an increase of £40k on his current deal. An extra £2m a year.

If Ramsey lowered his wage demands to other clubs to £150k a week, it’d certainly get another contract from Arsenal on the table.

So Ramsey would not have to move, could bring up his family in the surroundings they have been used to for a decade, and he would still get plenty of game time.

Whilst he wouldn’t be a guaranteed starter, Ozil has a history of illness and back spasms. He misses at least 30% of the season – last year it was closer to 50%. Ramsey would still end up playing pretty much every game – starting 15 – 20 and coming off the bench for the majority of the rest.

Ramsey also has his injury problems.

Last season he started just 21 Premier League games. The year before it was 13. Over the last 5 years he has averaged just 20 league starts a season.

Even playing back up to Ozil he wouldn’t be too far off that figure were he to remain.

So things around Ramsey will go quiet for a bit. His agent will be speaking in dark cafes across England and Europe seeing what interest there is for his client. And at what salary. He will probably come back with bad news for Ramsey.

Manchester United is a maybe, the others will all say “no” at his current salary demands.

With no new contract signed in March, Arsenal will reopen talks. Maybe stick a £150k contract on the table. Point at the fact that they know this is the level at what Liverpool are interested at. Why leave when the same money is on the table from Arsenal? Perhaps offer him a 5 year deal instead of 4. A little bit extra in an appearance fee.

One thing is for certain, the door is not shut, Aaron Ramsey’s future is not a guarantee to be away from Arsenal.

Keenos

Freddie Ljungberg – Heir Apparent?

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As reported by the brilliant Jeorge Bird over on his Arsenal Youth blog Freddie Ljungberg has been coaching senior training sessions alongside Unai Emery in the international break.

Over the years, there has been plenty of moaning and bitching that Arsenal do not have enough former players still around the club as coaches. There was a time it felt like some fans wanted Arsene Wenger’s coaching staff to contain about 30 ex-players.

The rise of Freddie Ljungberg highlights just what an ex-player can achieve if they have the desire, motivation and ability to become a top coach.

Ljungberg rejoined Arsenal in an ambassadorial role in 2013. 3 years later it was confirmed that he would be joining Arsenal’s Academy coaching Arsenal’s Under-15s.

He was starting in a lowly position overseeing the U15s. He did not expect to walk straight in as a first team coach, or overseeing the U21s. He did not complain, he did not have an enflated ego, he just got on with things.

After the appointment of Andries Jonker as the new manager for VfL Wolfsburg in early 2017, it was announced that Ljungberg would be leaving The Arsenal to join him as his assistant.

After  the departure of coaches in May 2018 following the departure of Arsene it was announced that Ljungberg would return as the U23 coach. Overseeing the side in the Premier League 2 development league.

Under Ljungberg, the U23’s – actually made up of mainly U19’s – have been in impressive form. Currently on a 6 game unbeaten run. They sit 2nd in the league.

Ljungberg has worked his way up from the bottom and is potentially putting himself in prime position to succeed Unai Emery.

Patrick Vieira, Tony Adams and Thierry Henry are the 3 most high profile former players that many fans said should still be at the club. All 3 had the opportunity to do what Ljungberg did, but all chose a different path.

Upon retirement, Vieira took up an extremely well paid job as Manchester City’s Football Development Executive. It was basically a job with no real role. He was basically a glorified club ambassador for which he was paid handsomely for – much more than he would get as a junior coach at Arsenal.

In simple terms, Vieira still had a year left on his contract when he retired, and Man City honoured that last year by giving him the highly paid meaningless job. It was only a couple of years later he went down the coaching route.

Arsenal never really offered him work at the club. He was playing for Manchester City when he retired, and took up his new role with the club the day he called it quits. He stayed at City, rather than seek employment elsewhere, for the money.

Then we have Thierry Henry.

He was offered the U18 managers job, but only wanted to do it part time so that it did not interfere with his Sky punditry work.

You can not really be a part-time manager at youth level.

The U18’s tend to play at weekends. Was Henry really proposing that he would coach players during the week, and then on game-day would be sitting in the Sky studio watching Stoke v Burnley instead of being on the touchline?

It was never going to work.

Tony Adams was always an odd one. He has been offered numerous coaching roles at Arsenal but has always turned them down. My feeling is he looks down at the junior roles. He wants a senior role, with the first team, or nothing.

The problem is his coaching career to date has shown him to be an average coach at best. Is he really good enough to expect to just walk straight into a senior role? Why does he think coaching the U18’s (a job he turned down) was below him?

Vieira, Henry and Adams all had their own reasons not to be working at Arsenal. If they wanted to, they could have all been part of the coaching set up, but it was their decision to not take a job.

Arsenal should not bow down to their demands, whether it is financially, job roles of flexi-time, just because they are legends.

Ljungberg is doing things the right way. Taking small steps up the ladder. He certainly has a bright future ahead.

Keenos

The Influence of Lucas Torreira

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He comes from Uruguay, he’s only 5-foot high

It took a few games for Unai Emery to integrate Lucas Torreira into the Arsenal XI. It was baffling at the beginning of the season why the Spaniard did not play the £22million summer signing.

As with everything to do with the new manager, I backed his decision. There must have been reasons for it. But the team was desperately calling out for him to start. We lacked the balance in the opening games that he could bring us.

Two of Arsenal’s biggest problems in recent years is space in behind over exposed full backs, and the reliance on Granit Xhaka as the sole shield in front of the back 4.

At the beginning of this season, Hector Bellerin came in for some largely unfair criticism.

He was caught out a lot on the right hand side, balls in behind him leading to chances or caught out up field whilst the opponents broke. A lack of winger ahead of him or lack of central midfielder to cover him left him overworked, often in two-on-one situations.

At the time I call for Torreira to come in, that he would fill the gap the full-backs leave when bombing forward. He would cover both in front and behind them.

In the last 3 Premier League games, Bellerin’s performances have dramatically improved. He is getting quality into the box going forward, and does not look exposed at the back. This is the Torreira affect.

Granit Xhaka has also performed well recently.

He was never the deepest lying midfielder. His natural game is to press around the half way line. Be aggressive higher up the park. Win the ball to launch attacks. But to do this he needed someone behind him to clean up his mistakes. That if he is bypassed higher up the pitch, the opponents are not straight at the defence.

By playing Torreira alongside Xhaka, the Swiss midfielder has a partner in crime. Someone to share the defensive load. Someone who will allow him to be more aggressive up the field.

It is not a coincidence that Torreira’s first Premier League start led to Arsenal’s first clean sheet – a 2-0 win over Everton. That in the 3 Premier League games he has started, Arsenal have conceded just once.

It is not just defensively that Torreira has improved Arsenal.

With a nearly 90% pass completion rate in the Premier League, he has given the goal keeper and defence another options when playing out of the back.

His one and two touch passing is excellent. He has a picture in his head of what is happening and is able to release the ball quickly. He keeps it simple, playing to team mates in space.

We struggled at the beginning of the season playing out of defence. One problem was that in the midfield they only really had Xhaka looking for the ball. This led to the ball going back to the goal keeper too often which led everyone to drop deeper.

Now when the defenders, or Bernd Leno, get their head up, there are two options.

Xhaka and Torreira.

Double the options also means the player they are passing too has more time.

Previously an opponent would put 2 men on Xhaka. This would take him out of play of lead him to be under a lot of pressure when he received the ball.

With Torreira and the double pass option, the midfielders are receiving the ball in more space, under less pressure. It makes the passing safer, the situation more relaxed.

With Torreira and Xhaka in the middle, we look more balanced than we have done since the Fabregas / Flamini years.

A brilliant signing.

Keenos