Former Sheffield United goalkeeper, Aaron Ramsdale, has criticised the Blades for the way his move to Arsenal was handled over the summer.
Ramsdale eventually sealed a £30m move to Arsenal after a protracted summer saga. The Blades were holding firm for a period, before eventually buckling allowing Ramsdale to leave. Despite being lambasted by some Arsenal fans when he signed, the stopper has proved everyone wrong. ‘Rambo’ has immediately dislodged Bernd Leno as number one, and has become a firm fans favourite.
Disagreement
Now, just a few months down the line, Ramsdale has been speaking about his move from the Blades. And it doesn’t paint the club in too great a light, it has to be said. Speaking on the Ben Foster Cycling GK podcast, Aaron Ramsdale suggested a few things behind the scenes at Bramall Lane meant he had to go.
“I’d have played in the Championship. But there was a lot of things at Sheffield United, behind the scenes, which wasn’t going very well. Obviously they had the manager sacking a few weeks ago, and you could see that coming in pre-season,” Ramsdale said.
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“I spoke to Mikel Arteta and then I was on the phone to my agent telling him to get it done. The numbers being thrown out, I was like how can someone be saying £40m? It doesn’t make sense. I understand they wanted to get someone else in and the market wasn’t that wide. But at some point it has to be a level playing field.
“It got to the point of me saying this is what I want to do. They said they wouldn’t stand in my way if bids came. But there were bids coming and they were turning them down. And they were making these numbers up about paying Bournemouth back. I was told on the day of the game another bid has come in, so I decided to play, but then after the game they rejected it. Normally if you don’t get a move, you’re rewarded with a new contract. I’m not naming names, but someone at the club said, ‘We didn’t ask him to take less money when he was conceding goals at the start of last year’. So that was when I basically said ‘I won’t play against West Brom’, do what you want.”
Certainly, Ramsdale hasn’t been afraid to have his say on matters here.
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Wow. It’s not very often you hear a footballer going into such detail. It’s clear Ramsdale was annoyed at Sheffield United and whoever behind the scenes said what he believed to be out of order. In fairness, the comment might be unprofessional, but let’s also remember Ramsdale was dreadful for a few months.
However, this is still interesting to listen to. It paints a picture of how messy things have got at United with certain things, with Ramsdale clearly not trusting what was going on.
The comments on Jokanovic are telling as well. It seems he knew the Serbian wouldn’t last almost immediately.
To be fair to the stopper, he did admit later in the interview he’d told the club he was happy to play if Arsenal didn’t put up the money. But it seems what Ramsdale sees as broken promises made his mind up pretty quickly.
