Arsenal: The Aaron Ramsey problem could get worse

Arsenal are allowing Aaron Ramsey to leave the club at some point this season, either in January or at the end of the year. The problem, though, could get worse.

Aaron Ramsey will almost certainly leave Arsenal football club this season. The Welshman has been a staple of the midfield for the best part of a decade, an integral part of Arsene Wenger’s latter years in north London. But with his contract in its final year and financial and personnel pressures rising, the club has decided that it is time to move on.

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Whether Ramsey’s impending exit, which is most certainly engineered by Arsenal and not Ramsey himself, is the right decision or not depends on your opinion of his efficacy. The question of worth is a balance of price and production. For Unai Emery, in Ramsey’s case, they didn’t add up.

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That is a problem. There is no viable, quick-fix, ready-made replacement for Ramsey, either at the club or in the pipeline via a transfer, and his unique, all-encompassing style has been at the heart of everything that this team has done for some time. His absence will be hard felt. The problems, however, do not stop there.

Not only is Ramsey going to be a difficult figure to replace, whether it be via a shift in system and tactics or through a like-for-like swap in the transfer market, but his presence at other clubs could yet harm the prospects of this team.

As reported by ESPN, Ramsey is open to a move to a fellow top-six club in England and is happy to play against Arsenal in the Premier League. This is no staggering revelation, but it does help to hammer home the powerlessness of the Gunners’ ineptness.

Because of the lack of foresight to renew Ramsey’s contract early in its duration, the midfielder now has the pick of the bunch. Even if Arsenal are able to come to some cut-price deal in January to try and scrape some value from the bottom of the barrel, Ramsey does not have to leave. He can simply say ‘no’, wait until the summer and waltz out of the front door.

Moreover, although Ramsey has iterated his willingness to see out his contract, like Alexis Sanchez last season, there is no guarantee that he will be as motivated as he would have been if he was playing under the security of a new deal.

What if he begins to fear suffering an injury — which, with his history, is not that unlikely — that could harm his value in the market next summer and doesn’t apply himself with the same level of commitment? What if he becomes distracted by the future and takes his mind of the present? What if he refuses to play or train for a club that has shown little loyalty to him?

The Ramsey problem is already a big one. But it could still get worse before it ever gets better.