Aaron Ramsey has spent the past 10 years at Arsenal but their current longest serving player seems ready to move on.
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The Gunners and Ramsey have yet to agree on a new contract and his current deal runs out in the summer of 2019 (sound familiar? Ahem, Ozil and Sanchez), which means he can agree to a free transfer outside of England in January and he can join a Premier League rival in the summer for free.
It has been reported that Manchester United, Chelsea and Juventus are all interested in signing Ramsey and other reports suggest that Arsenal is willing to listen to offers for Ramsey in January with contract talks over and no offer on the table.
With Arsenal’s wage bill high after handing the likes of Mesut Ozil a huge new $460,000 per week contract, it is believed they will not pay Ramsey anywhere near that amount.
The 27-year-old Welsh midfielder overcame a horrendous leg break early in his Gunners career and has become a key figure in an attacking midfield role, winning the FA Cup three times as he scored the winner at Wembley twice. Ramsey has scored 58 goals in 386 games in all competitions for the Gunners.
Alongside Gareth Bale he led Wales to the semifinals of EURO 2016 and it is understandable if Ramsey wants to be playing in the UEFA Champions League year in, year out, something he hasn’t done for the past two seasons at Arsenal.
Ramsey is at his best when he is making surging runs and creating chances for his teammates in the final third and his quality on the ball suggests he’s one of the players who can slot in seamlessly to any top team.
The idea of him moving on in January seems to be a bit of non-starter, as clubs will simply just wait until the summer when they can sign him for nothing and that would suit Ramsey financially too as he’d be able to ask for higher wages and a hefty signing on free from his new club as they wouldn’t have spent a penny on a transfer fee. Still, it is possible if the transfer fee is minimal.
Once again, it appears Arsenal dragging their heels over contract talks will come back to bite them.
