There’s been a lot of debate in the air about David Raya vs Aaron Ramsdale. A large chunk of that, in my opinion, is the English looking out for the English.
But it doesn’t matter. There is no debate. Mikel Arteta thinks David Raya is the future of the Arsenal keeping story and he’s going to play his new man until it works.
The biggest error Arteta made was pretending his biggest mistake was not subbing on keepers during a game – or having different options for tactics. Arteta is never going to sub a keeper on at 70 minutes to change a game unless there’s a broken leg. All the tacticos frothing at the idea of this did make me laugh. The idea was always silly. If the most important player you can bring on to tactically change a game is a keeper, you’ve done something very wrong when picking your squad. There’s also the jarring nature of doing it in a game. If a keeper with cold gloves comes on and makes an error, the coach is in the mud. I also don’t see a game state where that move is merited. Chasing a game and you want a new keeper? Really? Defending a game and you want to bring on a keeper to see it out? Really? Arteta created the hill he is currently dying on and he deserves this. He should have just been honest about his plans… now people are prodding at him because by his own words, he should be dropping Raya right now.
What he should have said is he’s looking for something different this season and he’s changing things up.
David Raya is the chosen one and here are some things we have to consider:
Some of his errors of late are down to the way he’s being asked to play. He isn’t doing the same things as Ramsdale, he’s being asked to take things to the next level. That comes at a price, occasionally. We’ve seen Ederson, the very best, giving the ball away with consequences in the Manchester derby, and there are lots of moments you can find of him giving the ball away. His kicking success rate hovers in the same area as Raya. High-risk keepers come with high-risk errors. Arteta doesn’t want a keeper, he wants a makeshift centre back, and that’s a hard position to play.
He was lobbed from a cross at the weekend. It was an error, no doubt. He was out of position – and it angered me at the time. But looking back, it’s clear he’s at the front post because he’s aggressively trying to cut out crosses. Mudryk accidentally hit his shot into the only part of the net he would have scored from.
Some of the shakiness in the defence with the way he plays is down to the fact he’s had a short amount of time with his defence. Life was different at Brentford. He’d played in their system for 7 years, he knew everyone, he was part of their style. Arsenal is another level, he has to learn new routines, do different things, and unfortunately, that takes time.
Arsenal fans love Aaron Ramsdale. But it’s hard to look at his game over the last year and say it’s better than what we’re going to get when Raya settles. Aaron stopped coming for crosses, his kicking slowly regressed, his shot-stopping was way below average, and he made big mistakes in important moments.
It’s easy forget when part of the way you judge a player’s talent is how much you like them. The Moneyball concept was based on cutting out commentary like ‘his hairline is receding, he’ll lack self-esteem and confidence.’ You can’t judge a player by how much you like him.
Here are the stats side by side.
More passes, more successful passes, more ambitious passing, more touches, and better lost possession percentage. He’s also a suprem shot-stopper.
Also, let’s talk about his errors. The one against RC Lens ended in a world-class finish, the one against Spurs had a lot happen after it and ended in a world-class finish, the one against Chelsea was a horrendously lucky shot.
The luck will course correct, the errors will die, and he will show that he’s the chosen one with world-class performances.
This kind of reminds me about the time we signed Thomas Partey and the stats sites said they wouldn’t have taken him on a free transfer. Then he moved into the single pivot position and didn’t do well there game one and people said he’d fail. How did that work out as a hot take? Terribly.
The one thing no one offers in the Premier League chatter, even some of the smartest analysts, is time.
It takes everyone time to settle unless your name is Declan Rice.
Aaron Ramsdale will be sold in January for £40m and we’ll use that money to buy a striker.
That’ll be the end of that. Don’t hang your hat on ‘two quality keepers’ because quality keepers don’t sit on the bench. Ramsdale is a quality keeper, he needs to play, he will get a big offer.
Right, that’s me done.
Let me know YOUR thoughts in the comments section! x
Newcastle are getting the short end of the stick because these gambling infractions happened before they paid £70 for him
There’s a lawsuit somewhere, court of arbitration will get this case at some point.
Milan knew, they ought to have known.
I was a bit late with the lawsuit comment
“Newcastle ‘threaten AC Milan with multi-million pound lawsuit’ over Sandro Tonali, with £52m gambling-addict midfielder set to agree a 10-month ban over illegal betting which is set to kick in tomorrow”
https://www.calciomercato.com/news/calcioscommesse-caos-tonali-il-newcastle-minaccia-una-causa-mult-71101 use google translate
I think gambling infractions are just as bad if not worse than doping. I think months are too lenient when you bring the game into disrepute. Think the ban should be a minimum of a season
Gd4/mg42 behaviour is a classic cry for help.
Gambling infractions notably when betting on own side begin to touch the ban for years territory for me. The precedent must be set.
Pete Rose banned from baseball for life for betting on many including his own side, no hall of fame no punditry. Proper out of the game pariah.
@Sal,
Dunno much about American sports but I’ll check it out.
Lifetime ban is Wow.
But good insight.
Pedro mentioned in one of his articles that Arteta lacks empathy. This game against Sheffield will be the biggest of that in my opinion.
If he doesn’t play Rams then … I dunno what else to say.
I’m very curious about the weekend:
But who knows with Arteta, he just doesn’t give a damn lol.
He has taken ruthlessness to a level I’ve never seen in a coach.
I’d say there’s a 0% chance we sell our captain, and it’s highly unlikely Arteta shows Ødegaard the indignity of stripping him of the captaincy either.
It’s very difficult to secure top class players, even if clubs have big money to invest.. It’s why some clubs are punting massive money on medium term investments…
Some of the same idiots who claimed Rice wasn’t a game changer, are now waxing lyrical over him…. And finding a reason to criticism our captain.
I’m absolutely certain that Arteta, Guardiola + Klopp, all see defending in a very different way.
Ødegaard won the ball back in the final third more than any other player in Europe’s top 5 league’s last season…. But according to Pierre… He can’t press, abd just runs around aimlessly pointing.
Other than City…. No other team has allowed the opposition less touches in their defensive third this season….
But the guy who leads our press, can’t press… At least according to Pierre.
I’m going to take a calculated assumption that the guy who’s made both more final and middle third pressures than any other player in the PL this season, is a big part of shutting down those passing lanes.
Look at our goal against City….
They don’t need to necessarily win the ball off Partey, that’s not the sole reason for applying pressure…
But they do need to put enough pressure on him quickly + aggressively, so he can’t get his head up and pick a 40 yard pass into their penalty area, and eliminating their mid-press.
The idea Pierre has that pressing is to simply win the first ball, has so many holes in it, it’s absolutely ludicrous….
It’s not just Ødegaard…. Our centre forward role is one of the least thankless in the PL..
It’s purpose isn’t to bang 30 + goals with a low touch, low involvement centre forward…
It’s to create overloads wide + deep… Run the channels and offer an outlet, and shut down the opposition from building any type of momentum from the back.
Our forwards are basically defenders, who do much of their defending in our attacking + middle third, by trying to keep the opposition from getting into our final third….
And in fairness, whether we press high, or sit in a mid-block, we do a really good job of it.
While we need defenders who can defend their own box… Arteta would prefer not to allow the opposition anywhere near our box to begin with, and that means we need to block off the passing lanes in our middle + final third.
It’s also why we need monster defenders like Saliba + Big Gabby, so when the opposition are forced into going long…. It’s bread + butter for those 2 monsters,
China,
I posted this video about ødegaard last week. Some useful info about Øde different role.
https://youtu.be/2HMfN0T2JuQ?si=vZ3mgycSpoyARcLs
I empathize with the English because of the oppression they have faced from their landlord tyrants. Pedro had to flee from England.
“ I’d say there’s a 0% chance we sell our captain, and it’s highly unlikely Arteta shows Ødegaard the indignity of stripping him of the captaincy either.”
The rules don’t apply to Mikel.
I heard from a legit source that he’s one of the
few managers that players are genuinely scared of.
I just want him to get past his managerial growing pains, and with more experience fine tune his game management.
We got a potentially great one here.
But ruthlessness comes with a price.
If I’m Odegaard, I’d be worried.
Arteta doesn’t give a damn.
Nigel – GD4 disappeared shortly after RP7 was booted for vile abuse of Xhaka . GD4 though of course is now calling it a lie, spent a year abusing Xhaka so I’d say he’s got multiple users along with personalities, none of which are appealing
“Nigel – GD4 disappeared shortly after RP7 was booted for vile abuse of Xhaka . GD4 though of course is now calling it a lie, spent a year abusing Xhaka so I’d say he’s got multiple users along with personalities, none of which are appealing”
I’m still living rent free in your head.
Luteo and others are right about you.
Won’t be surprised when the special services
branch come for you.
Diss
What have I said that was racist? I’ve insulted other nationalities which is at worst, xenophobic and no worse than what others post about England and the English
. I’ve expressed my displeasure at kneeling for communist scammers blm. I’ve made my opinion clear that Raheem Sterling is a Jamaican national and not English
So unless you’ve got something to back up your claims then your meaningless buzzwords fall flat
Kiss my arse
Bob, good points, I was talking to my son yesterday after the game and I asked him who he preferred? He goes to the games where you get a more complete view than say I do watching it on TV and he said Ramsdale, he thought that Aaron had been treated poorly.
So you could be right about how the fans feel but I still think that it’s made worse by a media that’s constantly referring to that goalkeeping scenario every game and as much as we may not like to admit it, it does have an influence I believe…
By the way, it wasn’t that long ago that we drew 2-2 with Fulham at home and who got most of the blame for that, unfairly in my view?
The media of course jumped all over it…
“I’m not happy at the way that Ramsdale’s been sidelined but it’s never easy replacing a popular goalkeeper, a goalkeeper who I regularly saw heavily criticised on this blog, it was the same with John Lukic. This is a long season and there’s plenty of twists and turns in it so I’d just wait and see where it leads us and hopefully Aaron will play a part in any success we enjoy.”
Great comment from Kev.
Ive Ben a great supporter of Ramsdale since he was linked, and all through the abuse he’s taken.
I’ll support Raya the same way. They both want to play for Arsenal. That will always get my loyalty.
Sergio Ramos
“In one against one we had chances to hurt them, knowing that Arsenal are a team that wants to play football, that leaves a lot of space on the line to take advantage of those losses that we sometimes found, but we did not capitalise well enough. I think that in the end we played face to face, both against Real Madrid and Arsenal. It is true that it is difficult not to see a difference before we played the teams that, for me, currently play the best in Europe.
“And playing face to face with this type of team and knowing that they create from the back and want to create by playing football from the goalkeeper’s kick, is not easy. It is true that we need perhaps a little more time for people, the players, to learn more about this new system. But even so, I think the team has done quite a few things well, although football is ultimately a result, right? And you go home screwed but proud of knowing we have given everything within.”
Pierre, yeah I was thinking more of the penalty that never was when Sanchez cleaned out Jesus and that Neville and Co completely ignored. But it’s also just a symptom of this sweeper keeper, playing out from the back fashion that everybody is trying atm.
I thought that Trossard’s finish was a brilliant combination of timing and control, he’s maybe the only player we have who could have scored from there, but yeah you’d expect that an Allison or Ederson would save it.
China,
On Ødegaard, according to that video from last week, he is ahead of where he was at the same point last season in goals and assists…. When he ended up our player of the season. Balon dor nominee.
Will be tougher this season with Rice, and also Saka producing more, but what a squad we have.
On Ramos and Sevilla..
After that bullet header, I was shell shocked. Every cross and corner had me nervous AF.. even though I know we defend then well. It might be a Ramos effect the way they execute headers.
GD4 – I very much doubt you know who Special Branch actually are.
There’s a section order coming for you Bruv 👊
GD4
I don’t follow much sport in America either, but the baseball ban of Pete Rose is pretty well known for its intensity. A lifetime ban is too harsh where as 2 years carries heavy weight in the deterrence bracket. Believe Rose was managing and betting on own side as well.
This from Billy Carpenter is an interesting take:
“But I find something to be missing in the discussion about Raya, and that is how much more is asked of him.
We saw him rushing up to play LCB yet again. This has the practical effect of making him much more influential in build-up and general play.
This comes through in volume, with Raya making about 18 more passes per game on average. Over, say, a 38-game slate, that means he would pass about 680 more times than Ramsdale.
Can we understand why there may be a couple more nervy moments in there?
Even with lower volume, Ramsdale’s had moments of his own. Can we say with any certainty that, given 680 more passes to attempt, Ramsdale wouldn’t be contributing a lot more of those? I sure can’t.”
Same poster who’d earlier decried Raya/Ramsdale stat comparo for being easily manipulated, then posted Raya’s pass completion % which was the lowest of all players in the Sevilla game.
As if that stat was truly beyond reproach, when in this system you often ask the keeper to boot the ball after the play out the back scheme had collapsed.
Rumours that Everton could be deducted 12 points. City did worse so could be interesting times ahead
I love pedro talking with such a confidence about things he has no clue about so it will be hilarious to see arteta swapping goalkeepers for tactical reasons this season.
My impression of Arteta is he would put any player of any nationality in goal.. if he thought it would make us win. All he seems to care about is winning as his first priority. Don’t think he gets too touchy feely about things like loyalty to country.
Guessing many of you haven’t watched the Amazon doc… dude is intense. And to be honest I like that. That’s what you want in a player and a manager is hating to lose so much you will try and do anything to not do it. And you can tell that has rubbed off on the players as we are never out of games. He has many faults as does everyone… but I would say favoritism for country is not one of them. Do we even have any Spanish players on the team besides Raya? We have Brazilians, Germans, English, Vikings, Ghanians, Japanese, French, Belgian,Italians, ….. hell we even had an American once. So I fail to see how Arteta is playing favorites based on anything but what he thinks will make us win.
Nailed it Midwest…..
Goalkeeping pass completion stats are difficult to measure.
Because unless you can split them from long, medium, + short passing, it’s missing vital context.
There was a point where we’d play the ball back to Leno at kick off, and he’d punt it straight out for a throw in deep in the oppositions half..
That would go down as a bad pass…. But that’s what he was being instructed to do….. In order for team to move up the pitch, and apply pressure off the resulting throw in high up the pitch.
If we go long and a keeper has Havertz to aim for, we’re more likely to win the first ball… But winning the first ball is irrelevant if we don’t win the second or third ball….
Or at least apply enough pressure to avoid the ball coming back into our defensive third… Reversing the pressure being applied on our backline, and as a result are in a position to apply pressure on the oppositions backline instead.
The player who goes for the first ball, their job is to occupy defenders, as much as it is to win the first ball.
While we have more chance of picking up the scraps if we p win the first ball, once that ball drops, it’s more about who’s sharper in getting there.
Long kicking can be just as much about reliving pressure, as it is hitting a teammate directly.
Agree with Mid.
Arteta is striving for perfection it isn’t always going to work but the will is there. The goal keeper situation is a mirror of that, nationality has nothing to do w/ it.
MidwestGun
October 25, 2023 17:13:44
Absolutely, well said.
The idea that Arteta has favourites, whether by nationality or because they were his buys, is so absurd, and something only driven by people with ridiculous agendas.
Arteta wants what is best for a winning Arsenal.
It’s common knowledge that Arteta wanted Raya the moment he was appointed as manager when the goalkeeper manager joined his newly formed team.
The fascination with Raya started before they got Ramsdal, It may be that Ramsdale was always a Raya-lite and the moment they got to see that in training, Ramsdale was done.
Ramsdale started on a high but gradually dissipated, he was also unlucky that his high profile errors always seem to result in goals conceded.
I was open to Raya but the more I see of him, the more doubt creeps in. It really doesn’t matter because he’s the one Arteta wants – he’s made that clear now.
Raya ain’t no better than ramsdale…waste of money…arteta trying to justify getting him in. Saka been piss poor for weeks, odergard likewise, we need a top class forward
Talk Sheffield United could be about to sack Heckingbottom, and Chris Wilder could be going back there…
Is it that I notice it more because I follow Arsenal…. Or do we get infinitely more new manager bounces than any other club?…
I think Teta’s biggest fault is driving people too hard at times.. Ode and Saka clearly have hit the wall. I agree with the pundits that were saying Ode seems to be taking his countries failure to qualify for the Euro’s very hard and he has logged a lot of mental and physical time into that end and came up short as their Captain even with Haaland taking some of the blame as well.
So he may need some processing time to refresh the batteries. That shot where the Keeper was out of goal yesterday and he skyed it into row z tells me he is not 100%.
The club does have to move swiftly because as Rich just rightly put it, a ball playing keeper like Raya will make errors…and at some point errors will lead to goals conceded.
The two dominant keeper situation is not sustainable past January.
They need to sell Ramsdale or at least let him move out on loan to preserve his value as well as helping him keep his England spot.
Decisive action is needed very early in the January window to lance this abscess- away fans were chanting for Ramsdale at SB.
Arteta nearly died on the Willian hill , he’s got two more hills Raya and Havertz . To try and say Arteta doesn’t have favourites is ridiculous in itself,
I support him as a manager but I’m very cynical about this it’s all a level playing field. He’s been untruthful when he talked about substituting keepers. Doesn’t mean he’s not going to go on to great things but not having favourites really?
Watching Pierre desperately try to find more ways to talk down Ødegaard is hilarious…
Our Captain is not going anywhere. Wish all you want.
Arteta clearly has favorites.. but it’s not based on where they come from in my opinion.
Dissenters point is very valid and Rich’s take is throughly reasonable.
I just wonder how many of the rose tinted glasses crowd will feel if in January we have to go through a messy departure of Ramsdale to a rival. If you’re ok with this situation created by Arteta you’re going to have to be ok with a possible transfer out to a rival. His agent will be pushing a move.
I think he would put a Martian or an Eskimo in goal if he thought they had a killer pass and glue like hands and they would increase our winning percentage. And they could get a work visa.
Midwestgun – my feeling is that it’s more a Cana situation with the keepers. I want that guy gone , I’d also prefer Raya to go to.
Arteta I’m fine with but certainly think he’s got issues
Markymark
In fairness to you, I can see why an England nationality home fan may be particularly upset about Ramsdale being dropped for another player who may only at best, be marginally better.
Ramsdale seemed to be on the cusp of replacing Pickford as England keeper and I can imagine that missing of of that pride as a home country gooner must be difficult.
I loved it when we had Seaman as England keeper for well over a decade.
* I can imagine that missing out of that pride as a home country gooner must be difficult.
Whoever our goalkeeper is, and I have no horse in this race..
I’m convinced Arteta is prepared to accept a certain degree of occupational hazard within the goalkeeping position.
He sees the reward of our goalkeeper creating the extra outfield player against the opposition press… As worth more than any occupational hazards that might occur.
Whether we agree with that or not as fans… He hasn’t assembled a squad with the specifics to play this way over almost a 4 year period… To turn back now.
This has been his vision from the start.
The goal keeper situation is a weird one whichever player I gravitate towards they inevitably end up having a mare just as i’ve proclaimed my love for them.
If Ramsdale was on the ride Raya has taken us the arrows would be very sharp and aiming in his direction from many on this site.
Dissenter – I’m never going to win this argument on this forum. I do wonder if the grumbling amongst supporters who are singing Ramsdale’s name though may well start going into my thought process.
Overall my main concern is not English Spanish relations but the likelihood of bad fallout coming from these recent decisions. It says a lot that Raya is pushing Havertz off the front page.
There are a few on here who are happy now who won’t be if he joins say Chelsea. Well what can we say?
Every manager has favourites. In the same way managers get criticised for ‘not knowing their best team’. Whether Arteta’s judgement is at fault sometimes sure but there can be no doubt that he he is determined and focussed on getting Arsenal to win.
Havertz is not now starting games but is contributing well when he comes on. Putting his transfer fee and wages to one side(!) I don’t think many supporters will have a problem with his contribution in recent games.
Exactly Rich … Arteta falls in love with a players attributes, first and foremost and how they fit into his grand scheme. I do understand where sentimentality about nationality would come in to it for fans.. I’m definitely a homer when it comes to homegrown talent. But I don’t think Arteta gives a damn about that, clearly, otherwise ESR would be starting every match.
I think this is something he inherited from Pep. Pep could care less about that as well. I would not like it if Ramsdale goes to Chelsea.. nope. Pep had no worries about selling Cole Palmer or Sterling to Chelsea And I’m not sure Arteta would care where Ramsdale goes if they decide that he should go. .
MarkyMark
Outside of 4-5 clubs on the continent, who else could afford him?… I don’t see Ramsdale going to Saudi after he spoke about his brother, and that would certainly hurt his aspirations of becoming England’s No1 as well.
The better we get.. And the better player we get, selling to rivals seems like the only business strategy, because PL clubs are mainly the ones with the money.
If Chelsea give us £40 – £50 million for Ramsdale, and Arteta believes Raya is better suited… Then take the money.
If Ramsdale does well at a rival, then that will always be the giant pink elephant in the room, but ultimately we also need to operate as a business.
Selling quality players to rivals for good money, is ultimately better than having our squad littered with players we’re stuck with, because nobody will touch them with a barge pole.
Or having players that other clubs want, but can’t afford to pay them what we do, let alone pay a fee on top.
City don’t stress about selling to rivals, and neither should we.
One vexing part of the Ramsdale issue is why in the world did we double his wages, if he was going to to be relegated to back-up goalie?
You don’t double the wages of a polyare that will be moved on pronto
Then his initial transfer fee from Sheffield was £24 million with “£6m in add-ons depending on whether Ramsdale becomes the Gunners’ long-term No 1′
When was that £6 million due? Have they paid it to Sheffield already?
player, not polyare
Rich
“If Chelsea give us £40 – £50 million for Ramsdale, and Arteta believes Raya is better suited… Then take the money.”
Problem is Chelsea will be daft to offer us that much. Looks more like an opportunistic purchase from a desperate seller
They know we’ve played ourselves into a tricky situation, so why bail us out. Maybe the English nationality thing will help.
Dissenter, won’t the ‘we paid serious money Havertz so it’s only fair you pay up for Ramsdale’ line work!
It’s sad how many here are willing to throw in the towel on Ode. How about we get rid of that Gumby Jorginho and play someone next to him that compliments his style of play. He, Saka and ESR were magic together. Arteta isn’t even trying to bring on ESR slowly. He can’t be any worse than Jorginho so give him the minutes to get him back in form. I think you would see a remarkable improvement in both Ode and Saka’s play if ESR was playing regularly
Bob
Maybe, but that transaction and the Joghino one may have reduced the respect they have for our team.
We will get more for him in the summer but keeping him until then means the lad wont make the Euros, which may reduce his value even further.
The good news over Raya is that no matter how shaky he’s been these last few games, it hasn’t affected our back four. Yesterday, they hardly put a foot wrong. He certainly isn’t inspiring confidence but at least he’s not draining it. Ramsey didn’t either to be fair, but Raya seems to be blessed with a little more luck right now.
Whose throwing in the towel on Ødegaard barring the usual suspects? Most just calling for him to have a moment on the bench to rejuvenate, i’d put Saka on the same list.
We have to depth to go it without them on Saturday.
Odegaard has shown enough quality in the last 12 months to earn a lot more credit than he’s currently being offered by many Arsenal fans. It feels like most teams are setting up to deny him the ball and he hasn’t got in his usual flow in recent weeks. Of course, when teams are occupied denying him the ball, it opens up space for others. It’s a pick your poison option. Do you want to get tormented by Martinelli/Jesus/Tomi on the left or Saka/Odegaard/White on the right?
Nigel: I think Pierre’s take on Odegaard is pretty fair all things considered.
Most of us appreciate what Arteta has done these last few years, but he’s not beyond criticism. This goalkeeping nonsense is his making and the freezing out of players is a bit odd.
Just because some of us question what’s going on, doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the strides we’ve made these past few years
Well said Sal
“ I think Pierre’s take on Odegaard is pretty fair all things considered.”
No it’s not, Pierre has a permanent hard-on for all things Ozil and uses Ode as a whipping boy in comparison. If you want to use the comparison route then let’s do that – Ozil was mega-talented but also was the laziest SOB alive. Ode is an energy source with splashes of sublime skill. I’d rather take a punt on someone who has never-ending desire than a lazy shit who wastes his talent because his desire never matched his talent.
Bacary: He’s been brilliant but he’s in poor form and we need to start involving some of those on the periphery, i.e. ESR — the man who saved Arteta’s bacon no less
Ernest: I expect Pierre to shoe-horn Ozil into pretty much most discussions on here, not you ffs!
Matt B
What goalkeeping situation?
The drama and talking points the media have created, and some of our fan base are feasting off?… Ramsdale has mates in the media who will fight his corner,
Or the fact we have better options in the goalkeeping department than last season?
The most simple explanation is that Turner wanted to go, we didn’t want to stand in his way, and we had a chance to turn a profit…
There was a market opportunity in Raya that we didn’t need to commit to past one season, in order to replace Turner… We now have 2 better goalkeepers than last season as a result.
This mess you talk of is entirely fictional, we’ve stronger options than last season, not weaker.
Either Raya goes back to Brentford, or Ramsdale leaves, and as long as we don’t lose money on Ramsdale, then who really gives a fuck?…
“ This goalkeeping nonsense‘
It’s only nonsense if you allow it to be nonsense. It’s mainly the media who are trying to make something out of nothing and a whack of you lapping it up as gospel.
If Ramsdale was worth the #1 he’d be the #1. The fact that Arteta went looking for another #1 tells you more the truth. Perception is everything and at that, Raya is going to take time to settle into a significantly bigger club than Brentford. Facts of life, if Rams was doing the biz properly, Raya is elsewhere.
Bob N16
The recruitment of Raya makes only sense if he “proves” that he is an upgrade on Ramsdale in his performance level.
Until now I have not seen any evidence of that being the case despite the so-called stats which are being produced..
What has been achieved sofar is the muddying of the water and uncertainty. Ramsdale’s valuation
by Transfermarkt since he was dropped has fallen and his ranking as a goalkeeper has droppedfrom 5th to 11th. That will impact on the transfer fee if he is sold.
Also Arsenal would have to find a second string goalkeeper who is good enough to be a replacement. I doubt that will be easy in January.
Yeah Matt, but he’s always using Bug Eyes as the benchmark for pretty much any midfielder. It’s a brutal campaign he continues to wage. Ode is Ode, he’s going to give you more good than poor.
“ Also Arsenal would have to find a second string goalkeeper who is good enough to be a replacement. I doubt that will be easy in January.‘
He’s not being sold in January, ES. You need two capable keepers to the end of the season. If you are expecting to compete on all fronts, this is very much a luxury that can be afforded. I would suspect something happens at season end with either of the two keepers.
Ramsdale’s brain farta were doing my head in. However nobody could doubt there’s a very capable goalkeeper in there. To replace him though I expected either a youngist goalkeeper with monstrous potentials or an old head that’s seen it all like Handanovic. I can’t for the life of me replace Ramsdale with a David Raya who nobody can boldly say is a better goalkeeper. Immediately Raya started making mistakes I felt that was the perfect time to bring back Ramsdale and give him one final shot before we give up on him or he grabs the number 1 shirt with both hands. Sadly I think Arteta has made up his mind. And that’s sad not because I didn’t think Ramsdale needed replacing but because I think we’re downgrading even further from a position of weakness.
What’s done is done though. If Ramsdale leaves I expect us to find another top choice goalkeeper within 2 years. That would be 5 under Arteta, that’s probably more than the number of first choices Wenger had in his circa 20 years in charge.
Wait, so Ramsdale is getting sold in January because he can’t play the second string for a season, while featuring in domestic cups?
I’ve got news for some of you; better players than him had to suck it up for longer than six months.
He’s not even starting for England ffs, and Pickford is hardly elite.
Thorough
Who cares though?…
We’d all love to find the perfect goalkeeper and have that stability between our sticks for the next 15 years…
But comings + goings are just part of football, as long as we’re not losing large sums shuffling the pack, and gradually churning our squad, I don’t see what the big issue is.
Alex Ferguson once said:… “If you don’t change your team every 5 years, then they’ll change you”
Ferguson + Guardiola didn’t just proactively churn their squads, they also proactively churn their coaching staff, in order to inject some freshness into the training ground, and bring fresh ideas.
Team cycles usually last 4-5 seasons before they burn out, that doesn’t mean we need to burn through 23 players every 4-5 years…
But we’ll need to be proactive in changing areas up depending what market opportunities present themselves.
It was the reason I wanted us to dump Partey + Xhaka this summer, and proactively strengthen the team from a position of strength… While our stock as a club is as high as it’s been for at least 15 years,
It’s always better to make changes before the curve, rather than getting caught behind it…. Because once you miss the window to dump big earners, you often don’t get another opportunity.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=odegaard+is+more+lampard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovmq-NqO-Sc
Rich.
Very true.
The only problem is that we are probably not equipped with the right people to find us a top goalkeeper. This team has been responsive for sticking with Leno ahead of a much more rounded Martinez, this team signed one of the worst goalkeepers I’ve ever watched play in Alex Runarrson, and these same people actually think Raya is heads and shoulders above Ramsdale. I think those are 3 terrible mistakes and they can’t be trusted with finding what we may need long term.
Somebody was asking who Ode was… this video more or less explains.. it … He is more like Lampard than anyone. What I’ve been saying.
New post by the way.