Arsenal: Jack Wilshere situation casts shadow on Aaron Ramsey

Arsenal have to deal with Jack Wilshere first, but in the meantime, their handling of him casts a rather unattractive shadow on Aaron Ramsey.

Arsenal find themselves dawdling with far too many contract situations these days, and now they face the potential exits of their two golden boys, Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey. Wilshere is making the most headlines, as his contract runs up in three months, while Ramsey still has another year on top of that.

The thing with Wilshere is that, offers have been made. There have been rampant reports of contract negotiations being ongoing. The problem is that Wilshere wants a raise and the club want him to take a pay cut with heavy incentives if he can stay healthy and on the pitch.

It’s not wholly unreasonable, and it looks as if the club are learning to make decisions based less on emotions and more on strategic planning. The fact that it’s centered on Wilshere is just an unfortunate happenstance.

That said, if this is how the Gunners are approaching Wilshere, then how will they approach Ramsey? It is Ramsey who is much more crucial to the current state of the club and it’s Ramsey who is entering his prime, knocking in goal contributions at a higher rate than any other Arsenal player.

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Ramsey is due a raise. And given the output he has proven he can provide, he could be looking at anything in the £200,000-£250,000 a week range. I’d be happy to see him make that kind of money, actually. He’s earned it, given his heroics with the club.

But if Wilshere is being forced to stomach an incentives package, then wouldn’t it make sense if the shadow of that offer extends to Ramsey? Ramsey misses time every single year. It’s as consistent as is Granit Xhaka never missing a second.

That being the case, how can the club offer Wilshere such a package while offering Ramsey a straight raise?

This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. The stark difference between the two is that, even when struggling with injury, Ramsey’s quality remains the same. He is a constant threat to goal, whereas Wilshere has yet to establish any sort of consistent threat to the opposing goal.

I would hope that would factor into the decision making as well, this fact that Ramsey’s contributions are far more concrete. Ramsey would also likely be far less willing to consider an incentives package.

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Either way, I’m not getting warm and fuzzies from either of the two. If they both end up leaving, I wouldn’t be that surprised.

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