Arsenal: ‘Ongoing’ means the must-win Aaron Ramsey war rages on

Arsenal have no choice. They have to extend Aaron Ramsey. The fact that it’s still in progress is good, but the hold-up is the opposite of that.

Arsenal‘s summer checklist is almost entirely complete, but the this may just be the honeymoon phase before the sales begin. And as much as I want to pretend like there won’t be any sales, there might be.

One of which may be Aaron Ramsey. I’ve been pretending like this isn’t a very real possibility for the past couple of weeks, but now it’s time to at least admit that things have not gone as smoothly as we would have hoped, at least in this theater.

Far from it, in fact.

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Arsenal entered the summer with both Ramsey and Unai Emery singing each other’s praises, and that hasn’t changed. Emery came out recently and said the same exact thing that he had been saying – that Ramsey is a big part of his plans.

Then Ramsey was given the captain’s armband for the first preseason match against Boreham Woods and it looked to be another indication that yes, he was going to stay.

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But this five-year deal that was supposedly offered to Ramsey all of about two-months ago remains unsigned. There has been very little talk about what is happening as other deals with other players are signed. And, as Ramsey had no other obligations like the World Cup, it didn’t make a lot of sense why the deal couldn’t be pushed through.

Now we are told that the negotiations are ongoing. As in, they aren’t done yet, but they are still talking.

Well, that’s good and bad. It’s good because it means that the war is still there to be won. At least that’s what can be inferred, if the reports are proven true. As long as the dialogue is open, there is hope.

But then there is the bad news – that he really hasn’t signed yet. Everyone else made it look so easy. Granit Xhaka, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, they signed without hesitation. Ramsey, however, is hesitating and it’s that that has me a tad bit concerned.

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It sounded like a deal that just required a signature, but it’s proving to be much more than that, and I’m not a fan of it.