Arsenal: Grading 11 potential Aaron Ramsey replacement

3. Franck Kessie / Grade 7.0 / £30m+

Franck Kessie was one of the first names linked to replacing Aaron Ramsey, and he spoiled me in the optimism department. The cool thing about Kessie is that he does literally everything you’d want a midfielder to do, only he’s still so young that we haven’t seen how realistic it is to continue to expect him to do everything.

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Just 22-years-old, Kessie has showed that goal-scoring ability, he’s shown a tremendous work rate, he’s shown dribbling, defending, security, passing, creativity. He’s shown it all in batches, and it stands to reason that he could put all of that together and become the exact kind of midfielder that we’d want him to be.

But again, given that he still stands in the youth stages of his career, we have to be cautious. There is always that chance that he struggles to develop the full way, especially taking the leap from Serie A to the Premier League so early into the developing stages.

That would give Unai Emery more time to build him, but it may also reveal some flaws that we didn’t know existed until they were pressed under the stress of a superior league.

Plus, AC Milan know his value, they are going to be asking for a lot. The price listed is only his market valuation, and could blimp well beyond £30,

Still, if we want to talk about guys that could potentially replace every bit of Ramsey, Kessie has one of the best shots at doing so.

On to No. 2.