Arsenal chief eager to avoid repeat of Ramsey exit
Arsenal’s managing director Vinai Venkatesham has vowed to avoid an Aaron Ramsey-style exit for any of the club’s players in the future.
Ramsey, 28, will join Juventus on a free transfer this summer after penning a pre-contract agreement with the Old Lady earlier this season.
How will Arsenal avoid a Ramsey repeat? Five key things to know…
- After contractual discrepancies Ramsey opted to not sign a new Arsenal deal earlier in the campaign.
- As a result Juve swooped for his signature, securing his services on a free transfer upon the expiration his contract in June.
- Arsenal are now eager to avoid losing key players via a Bosman ruling in the future.
- Managing director Venkatesham has now revealed the club will sell any player in the final two years of their contracts if they refuse to pen fresh terms.
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos all enter their final two years this summer.
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The departure of Ramsey has been met with widespread disapproval by the majority of the Arsenal fanbase, with many frustrated the club will not get any fee from his move to Juventus.
As such, managing director Venkatesham has revealed plans to sell key players should they refuse to put pen-to-paper on fresh terms during their final two years.
That will ensure direct implications for Aubameyang, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Mustafi and Sokratis, who all enter their final two years this summer.
“When we are selling players we need to maximise the funds we get to reinvest in the team,” Venkatesham told the club’s website.
“We need to be really disciplined when we are dealing with senior players who are not towards the end of their careers.
“That means we have to start making the difficult decisions when they have two years left on their contracts. We’re either going to renew those contracts or we’re going to be selling them.
“We have to be brave in those decisions because we can’t be in a situation where we’re allowing players to walk out of the door for free unless they are coming towards the end of their careers.”
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Szczesny reveals role in Ramsey move
Juventus goalkeeper and former Arsenal teammate of Ramsey, Wojciech Szczesny, has revealed that a conversion he had with his ex-colleague convinced the Welshman to leave north London.
The Poland international has been a Juve player since swapping the English capital for Turin in 2017, and he has now revealed that if the Serie A giants coming call, you never turn them down.
“We talked to each other a couple of times before he signed for Juventus. He asked me for some advice,” Szczesny told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I told him: ‘It’s easy. If Juve call you, you can only say yes’. That’s how it went and it means Aaron listens to me.
“He’s had five months to prepare and he’s already picked up a little bit [of Italian]. When I took him to dinner, he said more than just a ‘hello’.
“He partly understood me and that’s a good basis to work from. I’ll take care of the rest to give him a hand.”
