Arsenal have had a £30million bid accepted by Brentford for David Raya, but Aaron Ramsdale is not ready to give up his current starting spot at the Gunners without a fight
Aaron Ramsdale has insisted he is ready to fight for his place at Arsenal
Aaron Ramsdale has insisted he is ready to fight for his place at Arsenal after the Gunners agreed a fee for David Raya.
The Gunners had emerged as surprise admirers of the Brentford keeper and have launched an effort to sign him over the past week. Those efforts have proven successful, with the Bees accepting a £30million bid for the Spaniard on Tuesday evening.
Raya will arrive to challenge Ramsdale for the number one shirt, with current back-up Matt Turner set to join Nottingham Forest. Ramsdale was between the sticks for every game of Arsenal’s Premier League campaign last term, as they just missed out on the title.
But even though he kept 14 clean sheets, boss Mikel Arteta grew concerned with some aspects of his game. That has led to the signing of Raya, though Ramsdale will not give up his place easily.
“Bring it on. Nothing comes easy in football. But also at the same time you need to move along and adapt as well. I’ve done it to other people when I’ve moved to clubs,” he told ITV Sport when asked about Raya’s potential arrival.
“I’m not going to be thinking that it’s never going to happen to me. So, yeah, I think if it happens, it happens and then we’ll fight and we’ll make each other the best version of ourselves because that’s what the manager is telling us as well.
“I’m sure whoever plays, me, Matt [Turner], whoever comes in, the goalkeeping union, people will laugh at but it’s a real thing, and your individual disappointment will go away and you’ll put the team first and you’ll put that goalkeeper first as well.”
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Arsenal have agreed a fee with Brentford for David Raya (
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Ramsdale started the Community Shield on Sunday, making a series of crucial saves, before saving Rodri’s penalty in the shootout to win the game for the Gunners. And he insisted that the win can be the catalyst for another successful season.
“They are a bit behind us in their pre-season. But what it is to us is a statement to us that we can go and beat them. It’s a marker to know that we can go and beat Man City in a big game when it matters,” he added.
“I’m not sure what it will be like going through the season, but we now have that mental block, as you might say, gone and we’re ready now to push all season long. We’ve been working hard for two years. We’ve stuck at it. It’s worked today.”
His boss Arteta was full of praise for his performance and appeared to lend the keeper his full backing. Arteta did insist though that every player in his Gunners squad needed strong competition for their place
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“He was great and we practised penalties a lot on purpose in pre-season to be ready for this just in case. We went through disappointments against Manchester United where we didn’t stop any of that,” he said.
“That was the learning curve that sometimes it’s needed to get the right result and I think he was superb. I hope not [feeling pressure], because the competition here always exists whoever it is and that’s what he has to feel like.
“If we don’t feel like this, we are not going to get the best out of each player, so we better feel like this and make sure that we all feel like this, me first.”
