David Ornstein says Aaron Ramsey is yet to choose where he’ll play his football next season despite reports in Italy claiming the Wales international has agreed to join Juventus.
The Serie A giants are one of a number of clubs that the 28-year-old plans to meet in January with Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, PSG and Real Madrid also tipped to hold talks. He is able to sign a pre-contract agreement with foreign clubs from tomorrow.
Having pulled out of contract talks, the Arsenal hierarchy seem happy to let Ramsey leave on a free transfer rather than flog him when the January transfer window opens – that’s despite the fact Unai Emery will have limited funds to spend.
In Ornstein’s words: “Any permanent acquisitions, loan fees and salaries will be drawn from a modest budget and therefore loan deals are more probable.”
Barcelona’s Denis Suarez is mentioned as a loan target while Chelsea’s out-of-favour Gary Cahill has been doing the rounds as another option. There are no plans to recall any players currently on loan.
For the sake of clarity, the BBC man makes clear that there’s no chance of Kroenke funding a splurge.
Even if by some miracle the American had wanted to get out the chequebook, Ornstein points out our hands would be tied by Financial Fair Play regulations and the Premier League’s wage bill rules.
Balancing the books these days is like a bloody Rubik’s cube. Remember, we had to offload a load of big players in January to reallocate funds to Mesut Ozil’s pay-rise and the wages of new recruits Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Things should ease up a bit in the summer when the adidas kit deal kicks in.
Basically, if you’re sitting by the chimney hoping Santa is going to make us a delayed visit in the coming month, that’s not going to happen. A couple of tweaks aside, Unai has to get his current squad firing again if we’re to achieve the club’s ambition of a return to the Champions League.
Happy New Year!
We should bid 80m for Cahill
It’s not even a good joke
I loved it
80m and £1 to test their resolve
Zimbabwe Dollars maybe
Well… f**K
The club I’ve loved for 49 years is a fucking shambles. A mess. A joke. An embarrassment. A lost cause.
So depressing, but it’s the only club I’ll ever have.
Calm down mate!
All he said is true.
Putting up with second best and being too accommodating to under-performers is what got us into this mess. I have no problem with Sheffield Goon getting worked up!
The first point is the salient one. However, a couple of loan deals – if we can get them – can work in our favour.
Six months to see if they can, or will fit and then we can either bid for or reject in the summer. Think Sale or Return. Have to make the best of what we have, I’m afraid.
Lost cause? Get a grip, son.
sven the saviour !
Nonsense.
Mhkitaryan a poor buy. Nothing against him but not what we need.
Lichsteiner a band aid.
Nothing has changed.
Back in the day Wenger made some poor buys too like Andre Santos and Squillaci but he also unearthed some gems with Dick Law like Santi Carzola and Koscielny, not to mention Giroud who still scores more than Lacazette considering what we paid for him.
Too many people want to see what they believe.
Wasn’t too bad a statement until you mentioned Dick Law
Not true Giroud scores more than Laca per minute played. Plus Giroud ever dribbled nobody.
How much have you drank tonight…Giroud scores more than Lacazette?
@santori I agree on Mkhitaryan (arguably best we could get for Alexis at the time) and Lichtsteiner (free), and I’d say Leno (£40m-£55m less than rival GK acquisitions this summer) still has progress to make, but seriously man, you’re just going to overlook Aubamayeng being the top scorer in the league? How Torreira is being hailed by many neutrals as a contender for signing of the summer? How Guendouzi looks like he has world-class potential? How Sokratis, barring the Liverpool game, has been a damn consistent performer, which is rare for a current Arsenal defender, and that him and Holding… Read more »
This! I think we need to cut our losses in terms of the signing fees for Mustafi, wages for Mkhitaryan and Ozil and maybe even ElNeny because he’s just not impactful in the PL; On his day Ozil’s great, but his ‘day’ doesn’t come often enough, combined with defensive liabilities. Xhaka, Bellerin, Kolasinac and Iwobi have all shown improvement. So it seems, has Maitland-Niles(didnt put a foot wrong vs Fulham IMHO). Credit where it’s due, Unai. We as Arsenal fans probably have bigger hopes than the resources he has to achieve them, but no one can say he’s been less… Read more »
That last line applies to you.
Shambolic, whichever way you choose to look at it. As a self sustaining club we have issues to balance but those making the fiscal decisions need taking out back. Liverpool made enough money from bang average players and we let supposedly world class players leave for free with alarming regularity. Look at the teams interested in Ramsey. Emery isn’t interested in playing him, management aren’t interested in getting any money whatsoever for him. It’s utterly shambolic. And I don’t mind a season or three rebuilding this team, so long as there’s a fucking strategy to it. I didn’t mind the… Read more »
I think a lot of this Ramsey talk is his agent trying to start a bidding war. It’ll be interesting to see where he ends up. We really need to try to get something for him in January, he’s not going to risk himself for the rest of the season, he could end up like Welbs, injured and no contract anywhere.
Absolutely! I trust Ornstein but he surely gets this info from Ramsey’s agent and this man is surely playing poker already now with many clubs. We saw how he acted towards Arsenal and it’s likely he was too greedy and that it was (one of) the reasons Arsenal gave up.
For sure,If the world beater Jack managed only as far as West ham,Ramsey should be lucky to get Barnet! I mean the bloke turns up in like 1 game in 8 and makes stupid mistakes.Orny is a liar,their scouts are blind.Oh and reportedly going for around 10 mil a year.sooo around 200k less than Ozil money that was flogged around as he was branded greedy.Whats next,Branding other leagues as “farmers” if and when he succeeds there? smh..
David Ornstein is one of the most reliable journalists and I’ve never know him to lie.
Erm…read that line again if you have the time.cheers!
😉
Lying and his info being 100% are different things
Maybe its time to accept that ramsey is a class player and many of those clubs really want him? why it Has to be ramsey’s agent or Orni being fed false stuff.ornacle never lies.
(And Alex your support of Ozil and hatred of everything against him is reaching afan stage of paranoia.I wonder what you would’ve said if this was Ozil)
Ramsey is average. Whichever club he ends up will soon find out to their cost.
Aaron is worth a punt for free…we took Licht for free, but I’m pretty sure Juve are getting a better deal with Ramsey than we did with Licht.
Ramsey wont start for Juve, not gonna happen.
@tas
With the appropriate coaching and consistent positioning Ramsey can be a very useful player on his day, but is there really any need in going on the attack? Your point is just as valid (if not more so) without you having to act condescending to others. Chill mate, maybe your New Year didn’t go as planned, but a lot of others’ may have, so a bit of calm whilst people nurse their hangovers wouldn’t go a miss ?
Who are all these good players we let go cheaply? Szczesny is the only one I can think of
Sagna, Wilshere, RvP, Nasri, Clichy, Perez…there’s probably more
Every player we let their contract run down to 1 year, for the simple fact that we could’ve got more for them if they had an extra year.
So that’s a bloody long list.
Sagna
Clichy
RvP
Cesc
Nasri the Lesbian
Perez
Ox (good price for one year, could’ve got more if 2 years)
Chesny
Sanchez (we basically swapped a £90M player for Mikhi).
Gnabry
Ramsey
Welbeck.
That’s EASILY at least £200M+ in values we missed out on.
So far we’ve still got the better end of the Sanchez deal.
I’m concerned now Jose is gone, the old Sanchez may return.
The irony would be if the old Sanchez does not return…but I guess that’s too much to ask for.
Not at all , or maybe it was all jose’s proving
Do you really need to list Ox as a bad transfer money wise?
It was a great deal in as much as Van P at 29 in his last year for £30M was a great deal. However based on that valuation alone, it means we could’ve got more for him if we sold him the year before. And if our intention was to sell, then we cocked it up a bit. The decision to sell should not have been made in the last year. Seriously, you’d think Wenger would’ve learnt from the 7 or so previous times that if they’re not gonna sign with 2 years to go, they weren’t gonna sign with… Read more »
You can add Henry to that list. Could have sold him for 30M plus after the CL final. Instead paid him 10M upfront signing fee plus record wages and then sold him for around 15M after a year of sulks and injuries
We are not a seller club anymore, we are wasteful!
we’re not a seller club anymore because we ran out of sellable players.
it would be great if we could make a starm then sell for an inflated price. Following the Liverpool model.
– Szczesny, Gnabry both young talents let go too early/cheaply. – Rejected £70m bid for Sanchez, to then swap him with an aging well-paid CAM, when we had just given a mega contract to Özil. – – Wilshere left on a free, as will Welbeck and Ramsey when all other clubs are getting Premium prices for their home-grown talents. – We turned down £12m from benéfica for Campbell a few years ago, only to pointlessly loan him out until his value dropped. – Perez, we turned down 17m to then sell him for pennies after a stupid year long loan… Read more »
You forgot about Alex Song and Thomas Vermaelen.
We received ample compensation for those two.
In hindsight Song did badly for Barca, but he was class for us and the general consensus on this forum was that he was an underrated and talented player. Look at this assist, for example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/comments/4tgobx/classic_van_persie_goal_vs_bvb_amazing_alex_song/?st=JQCTP2ER&sh=1058543a
That doesn’t negate or compensate for the other terrible deals.
And shoot, utterly forgot about Campbell and Jack.
I dont recall being.offered £17m for Perez ?
Depor offered 12 or 13M but we wanted 17 so said no…sent him to them on loan instead with no agreement to purchase at end of loan…then sold for 4M to West Ham. Clusterfuck!
Turned down 25 mill bid for chambers too. Shambolic
Coutinio and The Biter are average? Not hard to please are you.
But the point is Liverpool got crazy money when they sold their star players. We got Mkhitaryan.
Ramsey will be talking to these clubs. Well anybody can pick up the phone and talk to these clubs. When it comes to a deal will these clubs pay the salary he wants ? His injury record is not great and most of these clubs have better players than him. I rather he stayed but the only annoying thing for me is that we get no money for him (or Welbeck) when he goes. At the end of the day he is not a player that is crucial to the future of AFC. At least we haven’t gone down the… Read more »
Unless Unai’s plan was to build a team around Him. And it was, according to the news back to this summer…
That was probably until he saw him play ?
“A Modest budget.”
There goes the top 4 finish, down the drain.
It seems the club is not serious at all in competing at the top level.
Surely the heart of the issue. Things haven’t entirely changed since Wenger and Law. Yes we are spending more on players but that merely reflects current reality and we are still trying to do things on the cheap with Mhkitaryan and Lichsteiner instead of truly addressing what the squad needs. The issue in the squad is not Mustafi or Granit or Iwobi. Iwobi is about the only player we have at the moment that can engage players one on one. Granit, Torreira and GUendouzi represent only 3 choices in midfield thereafter the drop off is steep with Elneny as well… Read more »
There’s nothing inexplicable about loaning out Chambers. He’s an utter liability. We were turned over by Southampton just like we were for Walcott and Ox.
Ramsey to Juventus, Ramsey to PSG…blah blah, agent’s Creating waves I’d say, he’s Everton, Sevilla or Milan material. Ozil should be sold to China, “only creative talent” nonsense, he is not a fighter, sportsmen need to be figthters. That should free our wage bill.
Everton, Sevilla, Milan (or Arsenal) material
Well the FFP regs don’t apply to Man City or PGG do they? They do what the fuck they want and it all gets brushed under the carpet, maybe we should apply for one of their membership cards?
*PSG
First thing I thought of too – fecking joke.
I wasn’t expecting us to finish top4, hopefully we can win the Europa. It’s a real worry that we’ve been saddled with a £550,000,000 bill to fund Kroenke’s takeover. If you look at the way this guy operates, and his previous for helping himself to £6million, whilst also getting the club to pick up a £1,000,000 tab for fee’s involved in the takeover, I think it’s more than likely we’ll be funding it? Or At very least paying the interest on the loan. I feel sorry for Emery, he’s inherited a lopsided squad, with few sellable assets to generate funds,… Read more »
There is no “bill to fund Kroenke’s takeover”. He didn’t borrow against the club’s assets to fund the takeover.
Not sure why people keep saying this! Maybe it”s because the Glazers did it, but Kroenke (for all his faults and complete lack of giving a shit) didn’t. Arsenal Vision did a really good podcast on the financials at the time of the takeover.
Agree with you though that we’re pretty screwed with our lack of funds and the amount of replacements we need just to tread water, when we’re already so far off the pace.
What’s to stop him taking a dividends to pay off the loan he secured to purchase the remainder of the club? He was happy to take £3mill 2yrs in a row, and only stopped because it was questioned why the alleged work KSE had done wasn’t put out to tender. Also in a previous interview he’s stated he see’s no problem with owners taking dividends. The reality is we’ll never know, but whilst your free to trust Kroenke, I certainly don’t share your level of good will and trust placed in our owner. I think he’s a cu*t with a… Read more »
They say it because he could turn the bridging loan into a new loan leveraged on the club. Which he is likely to do because he is a parasite.
The only players worth keeping – Monreal, Papa, Holding, Mavro, Torreira, Guendouzi, Laca, Auba. All the rest are just marking time.
Ooooooh maybe we should have sold Ramsey in the summer then we’d have 40 odd million to spend.
And why are we letting a player go on a free who interests the top 5 clubs in Europe. How is he not good enough for us but good enough for them?
Of course he ain’t good enough for them. Some may take him on a free but he will have to be squad player. If he goes to wolves Fulham Burnley he could be their star player
Why would Juventus A: pay 40 million for him in the summer or Jan when they can agree a big deal to get him next summer for free putting the 40 mil towards wages Arsenal could never match with it still being cheaper for them? Only Liverpool are so stupid.
Ramsey is average and “top” clubs interest in him doesn’t change that.
It’s much easier for a Juve or PSG to be interested in Ramsey for depth when you aren’t playing a first-11 transfer fee for him. I don’t think he is as prized as the rumors would suggest or the January bids would be coming in.
We’re screwed whichever way you look at it. Tough times ahead.
“If you want to win championships then you would never get involved. I think the best owners in sports are the guys that sort of watch both sides a bit. If you don’t have a good business then you can’t really afford to go out and get the best players unless you just want to rely on other sources of income.”
Stan Kronke.
why isn’t there a “Kronke OUT” plane hovering over the Emerates yet?!
SAVE THE CLUB.
I have a feeling that may not be too far off in the future…
Better still boycott the games and don’t buy the merchandise See how his resolve maintains when the business side of it goes down the toilet…
Cahill? Wtf?
“Happy New Year”
So basically, Arsenal, on of the biggest clubs in the world cannot sign any new players to help our injury depleted squad because we’ve fucked it all up by overpaying every turd that walks in the door. Well, our current back room staff need to freakin fix it. They knew the job when they signed on. Time to do it.
It’s bizarre that we supposedly have to watch the salary restrictions. I mean what are City, United and Chelsea paying their players then?
Maybe someone can explain the rules to me but since when are we the club paying the highest wages?
It’s not about how much you pay but how much you increase year-on -year. So E.G Chelsea were paying Drogba a fuck-ton, now they’re paying Morata a fuck ton so it equals out, whereas we doubled Özil’s contract and added £350k a week in Auba and Mkhitaryan last year, so we don’t have a lot of wiggle room to increase it further.
Thanks for clearing it up (partially) 🙂
It’s clear we need to sell or loan out a couple of players but still.
We did offload Giroud, Ox and Alexis after all.
Even with our long-term absentees our squad is pretty slim.
Guess new deals for Xhaka, Elneny and Iwobi don’t help in the short-term :/
I’d keep him bc he is younger than Ozil or Mhki plus we may have issues with Brexit rules coming up. Given all 3 are similar players, Ramsey has the most up side. BUT you can’t force the horse to drink the water. Therefore if he needs to go then so be it. We have limited funds (as per usual) so we need to buy carefully in January. Any money from Ramsey plus some needs reinvestment in at least 1 if not 2 areas : Rwing : This has been an issue since last January when instead of selling Alexis… Read more »
You really talk bollocks at times and thing you’re the oracle of football
Brexit won’t limit foreign players. That’s just the nonsense the media are spouting. There is no reason to believe that there will be a limit on people coming in to earn premier league wages. They’re hardly likely to be calling on the states resources….
If we can’t get the right player in Jan a loan makes sense.
The odd thing is we sent Nelson out on loan (and Chambers)
It is great for Nelson’s development and us long term maybe but not good for us this season.
Chambers is a strange one. He goes out for regular football and ironically he may have had more chance to feature with us. Well at least we may see him tomorrow.
You confuse me. Mavropanos is shaky and needs a loan (despite impressing when he did play) but Nelson should not have gone on loan at all.
What’s your criteria?
We sent Reis Nelson our because we expected Özil, Mkhitaryan, AND Welbeck to Hoover up the minutes on the wing, along with some occasional Ramsey time. Being able to have Nelson play weekly against good competition is a strong positive for his development and was not certain at start of year. No one expected Ö and Mkhi to be shit this year. Same situation with Callum Chambers. He was likely 4th or 5th CB on depth chart and had opportunity to play more at Fulham. He’s actually been used as a DM by both managers now and plays often. Another… Read more »
Seems to me that AFC contract management is an absolute shambles and the guys in charge of this are getting paid a fortune to create an impression of laser-guided business savvy and then do their jobs like Apprentice contestants. £350K/week for Wurzle when no top club wanted him and then letting players like AR and Welbz go for jack shit is utterly moronic. Once again AFC will sift through the bargain bucket to get themselves another Silvestre – in this window, 33yo Gary Cahill, AFCs answer to VVDyke. Bollocks to this.
Those in charge now are not responsible for what took place previously.
You’re talking mainly about the Previous contract management staff. We’re shouldering past mistakes, mostly.
I’m pretty certain we had no money to spend from the start, look at last summer 60m total on 5 players whereas Liverpool spent 70m on just their goalkeeper – that’s the harsh reality and it’s getting worse I’m afraid. Looking for scraps its all dejavu..
Did I miss a a meeting, we are broke now?
According to the Interweb it’s only Rich Tea in the canteen. 🙁
Mesut stole the Hobnobs…
I understand and even agree with the self sustaining method of running the club but it has to be done well. Three summers ago we could have had Khabilily from Napoli but Arsene was cheap by 10 mil. Ended up with Mustafi and wasted 18 mil on Perez. Two summers ago Sanchez made it clear he would not resign. Man City offered 60 mil. Could have gotten 40 for Ozil. Instead we swap Sanchez for Mhki plus a bigger wage packet and gave Ozil 350/week. Could have gone big for Mbappe instead of Lacazette but……. Then this summer the club… Read more »
I was listening until you countenanced selling Bellerin.
I completely understand. Wenger became obsessed with holding on to his “stars” at the expense of the club. Liverpool have turned two players into a stocked team. If this club is not ready to compete and the ownership group don’t want to put cash in for transfers than we need to get creative. Bellerin could bring in 50-60 million which might allow Sven to buy 3-4 players. My main point is the club have to be proactive rather than reactive.
Sadly, i agree completely. I think the only way to fix the mangled mess is a complete reboot. Sell every player of value and start over with kids on low wages. After a season or two we will have enough in the coiffures to add solid talent slowly and wisely. I think our back room staff can do this well but I just don’t think they can turn this around while staying with the star players we have. several of them are completely unsaleable due to high wages or their age. We are like a big dynasty of a team… Read more »
We have heard it said many times, January is for panic buys. If Emery and the back room boys don’t feel we are in a state of panic (and by what they are saying they clearly don’t), then why would anyone expect big January signings? If we take a Cahill on loan for example, then we have to pick up his wages which coming from the chavs will probably be substantial. We currently and three fit CB’s and one almost there. Holding is the only long term injury. This is paper talk my friends and the whole windup is being… Read more »
Are we not panicking then?
A shambolic, elderly defence with more injuries than Evel Knieval is not cause for you to panic?
I am panicking because I even look at our youth team and see few defenders even near the required quality for Premiership football.
Arsenal fans should be panicking because even with every one fit we are still shit in defence…
I think Kronke is happy with us in the top 7. As long as we’re in Europa he won’t give a shit. That is the sad reality of our club looking at his other teams. That is his ambition.
Only got rid of Wenger because the stadium started being half empty.
If we want change we will have to protest in a couple of years after Emery inevitably fails due to lack of investment to chuck him out of the club like the Liverpool fans did with Hicks and co.
“Financial fair play” what a load of rubbish. To even bring that up is a insult when you have teams like Man C, Chelsea and even Liverpool buying everything they get their hands on.
Liverpool have sold extremely well, and invested the rewards wisely. Hate to say it.
They have spent WAY more than they have sold.
Exactly…We let Sanchez and likely Ramsey go for nothing. Liverpool sold Coutinho and Suarez for around £170 million. If they did what we have done they would be battling us for a Europa League spot no doubt.
” the Arsenal hierarchy seem happy to let Ramsey leave on a free transfer rather than flog him when the January transfer window opens”
Maybe blog knows the secret of forcing a player to leave when he can wait 6 more months and sign to almost anyone with a massive sign on bonus. Care to share this secret with the arsenal board, perhaps?
Because if not, this sounds like an attempt to whip fans into a frenzy of anger for no legitimate reason.
Gary Cahill, the times I’ve wished bad things on him. Now he could be ours? Not sure how I feel about that. Is he good enough? Or an upgrade on what we have at least?
He isn’t.
No, and no.
Then let’s keep that boxheaded cunt away from our beloved Arsenal!
I. Thinking he’s a like for like swap to cover for Mustafi bi-weekly when he slides himself out of the play and into the physio room.
Great strategy. Buy players, sign them on high wages then employ manager with ego issues and piss most valuable players off. Then let them go for free and cry that there is no money left to sign new players. Shambles from top to bottom. If all goes good it will take at least two years to recover financially from ongoing mismanagement of assets, if not we will fight with Everton for 6th place for years. Merry New year!
Happy New Year Blogs.
#silentstanout is not going to spend is 100% fact. He held Wenger back & every manager to follow. Us winning the PL or champions league are dreams with #mr.walmart
Financial fair play or us breaking the wage bill by the FA Is a dream, we are so far away from that. If we would have bought Mbappe & Neymar, no one would even question it, just sighs of finally.
We are nowhere near breaking FA or UEFA financial rules???. That’s a joke.
#silentstanout not spending is a big ugly reality that will always hold us back
So you are saying Stan isn’t going to spend David? Not surprised, he isn’t a country…?
…potentially 40m for Ramsey with competing interest from (rumoured) Real, Bayern, Juve, Inter and PSG hiking price.
It makes sense to consider selling at that price.
That’s a good amount of money (plus some) to reinvest to at least 2 positions in the squad with quality players. Maybe one purchase and one loan if anything.
If we don’t add having sold, you know why we are where we are these days.
The stupidity of some who continuously invent crisis around Ozil. There is NO problem. He can decide if he wants to move on in the summer. Meanwhile let me remind some, Mhkitaryan is INJURED, Ramsey is leaving, that leaves Ozil, Iwobi in attacking midfield. That’s it. Some people need a reality check. …they prefer instead to listen to media concocted rumours when the facts are staring them in the face. We need Ozil and Ozil is going NO Where this January. We also need Mustafi. Before you sell Iwobi and Mustafi, and Ozil and Granit just think….we have waste of… Read more »
We need citeh’s accountants. But I am willing to trust the new team, Vinai, Sven, Raul, and Emery to find a solution within our financial reach.
I recall towards the end of Wenger’s tenure how more than a few people were wishing we wouldn’t qualify for the CL. The logic being it would bring change that would somehow see Arsenal resuming its rightful place among all the other giants of world football. Some even claimed the CL money was peanuts and didn’t matter.
So now that has happened and we can even afford a single bread and butter defender when we really need one.
As the saying goes, careful what you wish for.
Quality player, but top clubs will find out he is not capable of a full season. Right now he plays very few minutes and keeps fit, but try 90mins twice a week and watch what happens.
Mkhi on a better wage than Ramsey itself is idiotic thing. We got bullied into a swap deal with United. Let’s hunt Ivan.
We got rid of a player who didn’t want to be here for one who did. I have no complaints.
Was our best deal Nicholas anelka?? bought for I think £500.000, then sold for £23million to Madrid,,,again i think