David Ornstein reports that Southampton have reached an agreement with Arsenal over the permanent transfer of Aaron Ramsdale.
🚨 Southampton reach agreement with Arsenal for permanent transfer of Aaron Ramsdale. £25m including adds for 26yo goalkeeper. Next step medical before completing #SaintsFC switch. #AFC to push ahead on Joan Garcia move @TheAthleticFC after @SkySportsLyall https://t.co/OZ1ws4J9FN
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) August 28, 2024
Everyone knows the situation in which the 26 year old has found himself since the arrival of David Raya, and it now appears as if he’ll find first team football on the south coast.
Earlier today, James reported interest in Wigan goalkeeper Timmy Tickle, and it’s also believed Arsenal will pursue Espanyol stopper Joan Garcia before Friday’s 11pm deadline.
More on this as it develops, with official confirmation likely soon due to the tight deadlines involved.
Finally, the saga is over.
Get Eddie exit over the line and new forward in asap please. Then I’ll stop moaning (nah).
He epitomises everything the new arsenal has become…how can I forget how he taunts those away fans on the road.. You’ll be sorely missed! We just needed a 3% improvement to close the gap on city…The current ruthlessness tells me why we stopped winning with Wenger…Who else thinks martinelli would go for 90m?
Honestly, we have gone up multiple levels as sellers this summer – well done Edu and team.
I guess it helps when your “dead-wood” (so to speak) is the quality of Rammers, ESR, and Eddie compared to Sokratis, Mustafi, Lichtsteiner, Jenko, Douzi, Kola, (a crocked), Mkhi, Chambers, torreira, et al…
We’ve come a LONG way!
Rammers looks way happier in this article now a fee has been agreed than he did in the last article that was just a report…
Does anyone know much about preferred back up Joan Garcia? How much are we paying for him?
Just yesterday you were saying he’d never go there if there was an obligation to buy.
Maybe just leave the moaning for after the window closes? Not long now.
Wow, didn’t think we’d be able to sell him (vs loan him). Hate to see him leave as love his enthusiasm and energy for Arsenal and he was a huge part of our return to competing for the title. He was dealt a tough blow with Raya coming in last year and for him I am glad he will have an opportunity to play regularly so he can hopefully take over the England position, but really wish we could keep him. Hope there will be enough time to get his replacement in before the window closes.
Arteta is ruthless. He brought in Raya when almost every fan was happy enough with Ramsdale. He got rid of Ozil, Aubamayang and a few others. The man has a serious winners mentality. Long may he stay with us.
There’s a picture of the 2019 squad floating around where all the players that are no longer here are black/white. The very last one in color is Reiss Nelson.
i guess that’s why we bought tomiyasu then, to add some cultural diversity to the squad
And don’t forget Tierney, we all loved him.
Tierney was one of my favorites, but in part due to injury and in part the evolution of our style even I can see he no longer fits.
Technically still on the books though… hopefully he can heal up and move somewhere good for him in January.
Same. I think he’s a great keeper, I hope he plays amazingly against everyone but us, and gets to feast on the tears of Sp*rs, manure and citeh forwards
People are going to hate on this. But I never thought we’d be able to get rid this summer. I expected one, maybe even two loan spells.
I understand the context and the objections. But I think this is a good bit of business.
Love you Rambo. Best of luck!
Same here. I was blown away by the permanent transfer given his wages. Southampton really do need a GK though.
In this context, where the player really wants to leave and also deserves to, and the club needs to do good by him, it’s a decent bit of business, better than dragging the situation on with a loan. Overall in the long term it shouldn’t have come to this situation if there was better planning and management. But we have some fairly young fellas controlling the club and even with older ones, sometimes there are going to be mistakes. Part of the risk of being as courageously innovative as Arteta is is sometimes getting things wrong 🤷
Plus, I read that we qouldnhave had to pay Bournemouth 15% of the fees for anything above £19M… and we have now inserted a sell on clause into this deal with Sputhampton. Great, great work if both are true!
*Sheffield United
I do not like pundits start calling Raya “world class” because of an extraordinary save. For GKs, pressure is a very very bad thing.
I find myself on the side of having to defend Raya more often, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate Aaron too. Massive #vibes character, outstanding shot stopper, big personality. I think he needs to be busy to be his best self, and he will get that at Southampton. I wish him well and will watch him with interest just as I will keep half an eye on Fulham and Palace. By the way, that’s 85 million generated from our last three player sales!
Nothing much between Raya & Ramsdale, both good keepers, but in Aaron’s case a few too many vibes for Arteta’s liking.
Hopefully the last thread where I keep seeing this point made. They’re not the same caliber. If they were the club wouldn’t have dropped Ramsdale like a hot brick as soon as Raya became available. More importantly you can see the differences when they play. Three ways Raya is superior: Transmits calm. Doesn’t put defenders under pressure as often with hurried distribution or shanks out of touch. Launches with his foot or throws to distance, with velocity and accuracy, before the other team is ready He’s #1 in Europe for claimed crosses, which is an underrated skill because it kills… Read more »
The claimed crosses thing was a big surprise to me, unlike his quality on the ball. He is a bit short for a modern keeper and I was worried about crosses and corners. I was completely wrong, probably because I don’t actually understand goalkeeping, I don’t think I’m alone.
there isn’t much between both keepers. Ramsdale distributes equally as good as Raya. Do you not see Ramsdale kick far and wide to forwards. Matter of fact, Raya in his early days was far from convincing with his distributions. i always lose my marbles when people say Ramsdale puts the defence under pressure. I strongly feel Raya is a beneficiary of a well improved CB duo. This is evident in the fact he barely faced shots until the latter part of the season. Are you saying if Ramsdale had been in goal that would not have been the case. I… Read more »
Top lad, top keeper, wishing you the very best Aaron, I hope you remember us gooners as fondly as we’ll remember you mate!
Lovely lad. Good luck to him, except against us!
That’s an insanely low fee (18mil without add ons) considering we bought him for 30mil and a year or two after that we all considered that, if not a bargain then at least a very good price, it was clear his market value had definitely risen before we brought Raya in. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people on the financial side of things at the club are a bit mad at Arteta at how he handled it, because there’s little reason other than that that I can see for why we should be selling a player for much less… Read more »
A great piece of business for Southampton this. He’ll be their player of the season for a while I reckon.
24m
25mil including add ons, 18mil without is what I’ve seen reported.
I think AI m is saying we only bought Ramsdale for £24m, not the £30m you said. I think it could have reached £30m with add-ons but no idea if any of those were triggered.
For me Raya is the best GK after Alisson and Ederson, so I don’t blame them for dropping everything to get him. The mistake was extending Ramsdale too soon. If it wasn’t for the wages he would’ve had a much better market. That said I appreciate the club’s intentions in taking care of their guy.
I think extending him was the right move, but if you’ve identified Raya as your long term no. 1 then as soon as you get him sell Aaron immediately, or at the latest in the winter transfer window. That time on the bench and those performances vs. Brentford, especially the second one, were really damaging to his value and reputation (not to mention his confidence).
*sell or loan even… the time to loan him out if necessary would’ve been then
I don’t think they knew Raya would be available until after the extension was done
Agree though I’d say he’s ahead of Alisson at this point too.
It’s not an insanely low fee at all – it’s almost exactly his value after 3/5 of his time at the club has expired, and if the add-ons are met we’ve made all of our money back.
That’s not how that works. He’s a very talented, young full international keeper with experience playing for a top team in a top european league and the CL, and English too. If we sold him a year ago we could’ve gotten 40-45mil pretty easily, that was his market value.
The market speaks for itself… a player is worth what someone is willing to pay. Maybe at his Arsenal peak we could’ve sold him for that much. I think he’s more or less the same guy we bought from Sheffield from a pure ability standpoint. Then factoring in his huge salary bump that knocks down the transfer fee you can expect.
It doesn’t actually matter if he’s the same guy, better or worse, it comes down to perception. It’s not actually controversial, I’m pretty sure if before Raya came you’d ask any Arsenal fan what Ramsdale is worth they’d say, and in fact many of us did say *at least* 45mil. Since then his prolonged status as a backup keeper and the two poor performances he had have seemed to half that value (and for some odd reason also the fans’ perception of it). I’m not sure why everyone here is taking such issue with such a simple truth. You even… Read more »
Nah, I think Spanish Gooner is right. If he was as sought after as you suggest, someone would’ve come in with a better offer.
The fact that we may get back what we’ve paid for him, after a great few seasons of service, is pretty good all round.
I don’t think you understood at all unfortunately. The fee is unquestionably low and it’s because we mismanaged the situation, meaning we lost out on about 20mil we could’ve used to better our squad. It’s as simple as that and any other mental gymnastics you use to try to see it otherwise are just that, mental gymnastics. According to your logic we could sell our academy players for negative fees because we paid zero for them and had years of service, no, you need to take advantage when you have a highly valued player and get the maximum fees for… Read more »
Where I agree is that we needed to sell high, and we are selling low instead. That said, at the current time his value has dropped and I think the point the two are making above is that market realities dictate actual value in real time. The market has spoken, and this is what it says his value is right now. I think another point to consider is that although the club knew Raya would be likely to supplant Ramsdale based on talent/profile, they didn’t know how Raya would cope with the psychological challenge of making such a big step… Read more »
I didn’t want to get involved in this argument but Raya did made mistakes that were overlooked, some of which cost points and if the manager has walked the talk of bringing him in for the goalkeeping situation to be competitive would have required that Raya be benched for his errors. As it were the manager wanted Raya and persisted with Raya and from then on it became clear Ramsdale is never going to get his place back. That exactly is how you tank the value of a good player.
This is becoming a bit of a loopy debate, you’re saying now exactly what I said in response to Johnny’s very first comment above, just below your response to him, and repeated now many times since – his value has dropped, and this is just the reality of the situation and something we’ve now had to do our best with. I’ve been extremely clear about differentiating between criticism of previous mismanagement of the situation and acceptance that this is the best course of action in the current state, but for some reason no one here seems to get that difference…… Read more »
My first comment was in moderation land for ages, then got published at the same time as my second comment in response to you so the timing is all weird
Nah, I’m pretty sure I get you. I just don’t agree that Ramsdale was ever valued at the amount you think we should get for him (£40m?). Not when we bought him, not when he was no 1 & definitely not now.
I love the guy, I just think you’re valuing him to highly. It’s all academic now as apparently a club has matched our valuation of him at the moment.
As said I’m pretty sure it’s not that a club has matched our valuation of him, rather that we adjusted our valuation based on current market and the fact we absolutely owed it to the player to do right by him, and were willing to sell him for much below our valuation for him to not have to stay longer in what is for him an awful situation. It was the right moral and ethical decision, but it’s not a good fee, not even for now, and especially not for his value a year ago.
Fulham, Palace, and now Southampton. How many “other” teams in the League am I going to find myself cheering on this season? All the very best Rambo.
ESR and Iwobi both scoring for Fulham the other day was great, and Leno had one pretty good save (after a bad giveaway). I imagine I’ll be watching them a lot this season.
He’s going to be busy at Southampton, and that’s exactly how he likes it. If they stay up he’ll be a legend for them.
I hope they do stay up, as I have a horrible feeling the add-ons are related to it. God help us if so, as they look appalling.
He might be a big piece of keeping them up. Can you imagine being in his defense and having him barking at you all match and winding up the oppo and celebrating saves and stops? How often do relegation fodder teams’ heads go down? “Aw we’re losing again…” Aaron Ramsdale don’t put up with that attitude.
He has been relegated before
I wonder if the fact that Bournemouth had a sell on fee of 15% above £19m had a factor on the fee…
Also, would be interesting to know how much of the add ons we are going to end up paying to Bournemouth. Could work out to be net neutral but a big positive for PSR
We didn’t sign him from Bournemouth
Yes blogs is right. I’ve seen this 15% quoted a lot so went back to articles published when we signed Ramsdale. They say that when Sheffield Utd bought Ramsdale they agreed a 15% sell on fee. So when we bought him 15% of the £24m we paid to Sheff Utd then went to Bournemouth. We don’t owe Sheff Utd (or Bournemouth for that matter) any sell on ourselves.
I feel sorry for Ramsdale.
He was terrific for us and didn’t do much wrong. I still don’t think that David Raya is much of an improvement on Ramsdale.
He is a Premier League quality goalkeeper and should do well at the Saints.
He’ll probably come back to haunt us in a massive game.
Good luck in the future, Aaron.
Southampton far too small for him, expecting big move in a couple of years along with our sell on clause. Still wish he was our number one. So much passion in this guy.
Spot on.
Ramsdale is good enough to play for a top-6 premier league club. And England. He’s better than Pickford.
18m is cheap but it looks like we need every penny this summer to do other business. Great keeper and great man and Southampton are lucky to have him.
By the fag end of Arsene’s reign (and through Emery’s), there were fewer and fewer players who seemed to have real passion – and who could stir it in us. Rammers was one of the key arrivals who really changed that. A great keeper and person (I remember his moving interview about his brother and homophobia). I hope he goes on to have an absolutely brilliant career. Won’t forget the astonishing Leicester or Liverpool saves, that he was in the PFA team of the year and helped us to second place and back to Champions League.
Happy for Rams. 🐏
Poor Ramsdale. Surely he could find a more competitive side. He’ll be playing in the championship in a year
Because they’ll get relegated I meant . He should be with top six club
All the best, Ramsdale. We love you.❤️
Personal view is that the replacement is equally important than the exit. Liverpool have just spent a lot on another keeper, City have 2 great keepers, etc. We either need to secure a keeper of Ramsdale’s quality, but without spending more than we received, or make the kind of move that brings in experience at limited cost. Because I think both options are tricky at this stage of the window, I’d have kept Ramsdale, but you have to trust the club will only sanction the move if they’re confident we come out of it better.
I hope his experience over the last year doesn’t sour his feelings towards the club because he is absolutely loved by the majority of the fanbase. He’s massively talented and a great character. I do think his emotional side is perhaps what caused Arteta to replace him. I recall in one or two matches he wildly celebrated a save while the ball was still in play. I love the passion but maybe it went too far because it means a lapse in concentration when the ball could easily be lost and swung back into danger. I think Arteta is going… Read more »
I promise you it had nothing to do with that. Arteta was getting fed up with him booting the ball wildly when it came back to him. There are quotes out there about this. Didn’t have composure, didn’t transmit calm in those situations, then made some bad errors when he tried to be calm. He’s just not that guy. Needs a frenzy in front of him, needs to fly around and get geed up to really shine. I can understand why fans love that but it’s not the temperament Arsenal needs.
I have loved all these players that are moving on. I can’t wait to cheer for ESR when Fulham visit. For Ramsdale when Southampton visit. For Eddie when Palace visit. And I get the feeling they will all be well received by the team at the Emirates too.
What a wonderful thing to be good enough that you don’t have to feel anything but warmth and love for our now former players.
Is Timmy Tickle his real name?
his parents enjoyed a puff or 2
Love, love, love Ramsdale. Thanks for everything and all the best for his move to Saints. Top bloke and top keeper.
Straight into my fpl squad given value versis quality
Still not massively impressed by how this haa been managed and how little Arsenal have got in return for Martinez, Leno (especially) and Ramsdale given how much two of them cost to bring in and their importance to their respective teams.. Have got to stop making a mess of this situation going forward
Wtf are we doing with goalkeepers!? Selling and loaning the 2 we have. Already buying 2 and then apparently spending all our transfer funds on buying 2 more. We’ve gone full Chelsea, but only on goalkeepers. Meanwhile no back up for our 3 or 4 forward players. Good luck Bukayo another 60 games for you this season.
It’s ok though because we have 5 leftbacks.
Look eh, when we were surprisingly looking likely to win it 2 seasons ago, i said to myself, if Arteta manages to pull thi off and win the premier league with Aaron Ramnsdale ( from 2nd division) then the rest should go home and grow tomatoes. It wasnt going to happen. Employing Raya was off course the right call. Sentiment has no place in professional football. Great lad and fantastic acrobatic saves from Aaron but Arteta is a man of control football in all areas of the pitch and can not allow mavericks to mess up with what he has… Read more »
So now we are back to square one. We either get a back up keeper nowhere near as good as Rambo is or we get one so good that in two years time this situation repeats all over again and one leaves. Bloody stupid, surely we could have found a way to keep Rambo and give more playing time to him. You will be hard-pressed to find two keepers as good as Raya and Rambo at a club and every club needs a *character* like Rambo!
i wish him all the best in his career. Aaron was exactly what we needed – a personality and a crazy good goalie. i understand the ruthlessness needed to win the league. David Raya is a better goalie and Aaron deserves to be #1 somewhere.
Time for Ramsdale to be relegated again. Sorry, guys, he has a great personality but he wasn’t that good. If he was, bigger teams would have made a move for him for such a reasonable price.
Glad for him, he deserves to play regularly and earn England’s number one shirt. Great character, even when he wasn’t playing he was always all smiles and 100% behind the team after the final whistle. He’ll be missed by the other lads in the dressing room I think.
My son is a goalkeeper, and Ramsdale has been a favorite of his to the point where he only recently has fully accepted that Raya is an improvement.
Still, love Ramsdale as a person and will look forward to his smile and shithousery coming back with regular playing time. He deserves it.
Buy back clause please?
He is a very lovable guy.