Arsenal: It’s simple – no one replicates what Aaron Ramsey does

Arsenal don’t live and die by Aaron Ramsey, but life is a heck of a lot easier with him in the club. Simply put – no one does what he does.

It amazes me that there are still people out there who see Aaron Ramsey as average. It’s baffling and, quite plainly, wrong. How many teams out there have midfielders who provide the goals that Ramsey does? Not many. Arsenal is one of them.

But it isn’t just the goals that he is good for, and that’s the thing. It’s his constant magnetism towards the heroics. For a team that chokes so often, Ramsey rarely does. How many times has he saved our arses with his uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time?

As it stands, the primary reason why we need Ramsey so badly is because no one else does what he does. It’s not a matter of numbers. We gained two midfielders this summer. Okay, we also lost two.

For as much as I support Granit Xhaka, he doesn’t do what Ramsey does. He won’t score or assist nearly as much. Nor will either of our new players. Nobody will. Those 15-20 goals in all competitions will be irreplaceable unless we want to repurpose someone like Henrikh Mkhitaryan into a central mid, and that’s not exactly a stretch I think we should be making.

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I made the case the other day that trading Ramsey (and cash) for Ousmane Dembele didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I stand by that. Not because I don’t want Dembele. Of course I do. But Dembele isn’t a central midfielder and we would be losing all that Ramsey brings to the club without replacing it.

Also, Dembele wouldn’t start. As it stands, our “Fab Four” attackers can barely all fit into the same attack. Factor in Dembele and you have an overpowered attack and a weaker midfield. And I say weaker simply because the power and threat is lessened considerably when you take the team MVP from last year out of the mix.

It’s a pretty simple rule – you don’t sell someone you either can’t or don’t plan on replacing. Ramsey won’t be replaced by anyone in house and signing someone else to do what he does would cost a good deal of money.

So just pay the man. Keep him. And that way we won’t have to stress about what happens when he vacates the spot.

And then we can sell him three years down the road when Emile Smith Rowe is pelting in 20 goals a season, right?