Arsenal and Aaron Ramsey: ‘Too good’ has nothing to do with it

Tony Adams has stated that Aaron Ramsey is ‘too good’ for Arsenal to be letting him go. Sadly, he is right. And yet, it has nothing to do with the decision.

Aaron Ramsey will leave Arsenal football club at the end of the season after 11 years with the organisation. He is the longest-serving current member of the squad, is the highest-scoring midfielder in the history of the club, and has scored two FA Cup-winning goals. His departure will be a sad day.

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As this whole process has unravelled, with the Gunners initially verbally agreeing to a new deal with their marauding midfielder, only to later pull the offer and allow him to leave for nothing, there has been a raging debate surrounding whether it is a smart move, both from the club’s perspective and Ramsey’s.

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Inevitably, ex-players and pundits have had their say on the whole situation, some more positively and insightfully than others. The latest to offer their weight to the Ramsey exit is former captain Tony Adams. If there is anyone who understands loving the club, it is him.

This week, Adams, about Ramsey, said:

"“It’s a different game and a different club to the one I left in 2002. We would be challenging and Juventus players would be signing for us. Aaron Ramsey is too good to let go. Why would you go to Juventus anyway? They are a smaller club than Arsenal – that’s the way I’ve always felt about the Arsenal. Other people think differently, maybe he thinks Cardiff is bigger.”"

I understand his point. And I actually agree with half of it. Ramsey is ‘too good’ to be allowed to leave — I would not be so hasty to back his argument about Juventus being a smaller club, but I can see what he is trying to say. The problem with Adams’ evaluation, however, is that Ramsey being good enough or not actually had nothing to do with whether Arsenal kept him or not.

The club believed that he was good enough. That is why they allowed his contract to run into its final year; they wanted to keep him but needed more time to thrash out the terms of the new deal. It was only once the summer window had passed that they realised that they could not afford the Welshman. This was mismanagement of finance, not football.

Even with Arsene Wenger, a known Ramsey supporter, leaving at the end of last season, the Unai Emery-led era still wanted to keep Ramsey because they understood his qualities and recognised the utility he provided the team. If you were to ask Emery what he thought about Ramsey, he would tell you the same as Adams: ‘he is too good for Arsenal to let go.’

Sadly, Ramsey’s departure has nothing to do with whether he is good enough or not. The club believes that he is. They want to keep him. But because of foolish decisions elsewhere, he is leaving. That is a sad, sad state of affairs indeed.