What effect will Ramsey’s arrival have on Arsenal’s other young prospects?
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Arsenal target Aaron Ramsey has chosen to join the Gunners over Manchester United and Everton. Arsene Wenger is said to have been a key reason for the 17 year-old’s decision, by organising a private jet for Ramsey to fly over to meet him in Switzerland. Arsenal went about their business in a very professional manner and, as with the Luke Freeman deal, they have been praised for their actions. Cardiff chairman Peter Risdale said
In an ideal world I would have wished him to go to Manchester United were to he to leave us but we have to be careful as we have relationships with Arsenal and want to do business with them in the future.
You can read more of Risdale’s thoughts on the deal here.
Whilst obviously Ramsey is a fantastic acquisition for the club, there is a negative side to it as well. Previously, Arsene Wenger had stated that the likes of Henri Lansbury, Fran Merida, Kieran Gibbs, Mark Randall and Jack Wilshere were all likely to play some role in first-team matches next season. However, with the arrival of Ramsey things have changed slightly. Aaron prefers to play centrally, although he can figure on the left-flank too. Maybe Ramsey’s arrival will hold one or two of these players back in terms of first-team opportunities.
What do you think? Express your opinion in the comments section below.
Who will he hold back and why?
Great article but i disagree, if we go out and buy Nasri, Van der Vaart or a top midfielder it will have the same impact for the “kids”.
I believe in good competition for places makes players want to achieve more and also push themselves further, something Gallas and Toure haven’t had for while, and What gilberto and Lehmann had all season (with almunia and Flamini playing out of their skins)
I still can’t wait to see the likes of Merida, Vela, Gibbs, Barazite, Lansbury, Randall and wilshire come through next year. With Ramsey I think we have a yound Cesc who could be pushing for first places right away!
Kieron Gibbs maybe?
Social darwism, survival of the fittest, whoever wins the battle will be the better player for arsenal, simple as
I don’t think anyone will hold anyone back. In the Arsenal system, everyone competes for every spot fair and square. If you can’t beat the guy in front of you you don’t get to play. That’s it, end of story.
If Ramsey doesn’t make it, it will be because he wasn’t good enough or didn’t try hard enough (ala Bentley who preferred the bookie to playing football). Same with all the other lads.
No one “holds back” anyone at Arsenal; which is one of the great things about the Arsenal academy and why so many players leave there so much improved.
Arse & Nose, as i mentioned in the article players like randall and gibbs may be held back as they play in similar positions to ramsey
Randall and Gibbs will have to raise their game, its up to them to make the grade.
Arsenal can not stand still for another season and hope players get better,its a fine balancing act but adding quality can only improve the squad.
More than likely he will hold some players back, although his position might have been taken by some future signing, so the youth prospect could have lot their position anyway.
Of course with such an interesting youth team setup at Arsenal, it’s easy to get attached to what we have, but in truth, if a better player comes along, we have to be mature enough to let the former prospects go.
Will he sitt on the bech? will he go on loan? of will rot in the reservs team???????? Does enyone know how good he really is? Baisickly, is he worth 5£?
Interesting signing, perhaps Merida will be the one to suffer with this 6+5 nonsense in the back of Wenger’s mind. I hope he isn’t our sole signing for the wings though.
survival of the fittest and bestest. simple as.
6+5 won’t go through, its racist and against the law so it will be the best of the kids who will make it… Randall, Wilshere and Merida IMO.
nothing to do with 6 + 5
the lad is WELSH.
as others have said if he holds someone back then they are not as good as him so shouldn’t make the team….
if lansbury, wilshere kick on and are better than ramsey then they will get their chance, no?
I don’t think Aaron will hold the other youngsters back. The guy who shouldn’t have come is Denilson. Denilson is the guy who has actually blocked the chances of Randall and co. He’s a player I don’t rate much since he hasn’t got any skills that we don’t already have in Lansbury, Gibbs and co.
nice article , i was just thinking the same , to be honest it could make them better, any player that choices us over the silly manks usa is alright with me and has the right frame of mind.
I do have similar concerns to some of you. When I do the maths of our probable squad make-up I’m a bit confused and if I didn’t trust Arsene with my life I’d be quite uneasy.
Assuming we don’t go and buy a striker, we have 4 players that can be put in the ‘Striker’ bracket (Ade, RVP, Ed & Nicky B).
Then there is the Spurs Hating Mexican Golden Boy & everyone’s favourite Theo to be probably used as wingers but will be given opportunities to develop as strikers.
Then the rest of the midfield you have the already existing pool of Lil Mozart, King Cesc, Eboue, Diaby, Denilson, Song.
Then the net effect of probably leaving Hleb + probably coming Nasri.
Add to that the new wave who we’ve can expect will definitely be there (Randall and newboy Ramsey)
A handful who could probably be on the scene – Gibbs, Lansbury, Merida (who I reckon will be on loan again), and Wilshere.
I agree with imothyt in respect of that if they are good enough they’ll make it. But surely we can’t give most of those young players the games required to see if they’ll be able to be great players anyway. The fact that out best XI are already young and will continue developing surely makes this situation mathematically impossible for all these players to be given fair runs in the team?
The worst bit is, I swear I’m forgetting a couple of people in all this….!
Welsh players don’t count in the 6+5 insanity, but Canadians and Australians do.
Howard, I see you’re spreading your ‘enlightened’ views around the websites!
End of story is that the best players will emerge as a result of stiff competition. I’m sure you’re not suggesting that Arsenal should play a mediocre player over a more skilled player because of his nationality?
The FIFA 6+5 rule won’t get pass the EU. However the UEFA (with EU blessing) recommendation of 6+5 home grown players (EU players who are at a club for 3 years between the ages of 15 – 21) will probably go through. By that criteria Merida, Bendtner, Ramsey, Cesc, Traore etc all count as home-grown players, while Owen Hardgreave will count as a foreigner. Interesting that Cesc would have to play in Spain as a “foreigner”.
As far as players affected in my opinion Gibbs and Randall are not quite good enough for Arsenal (both could play for a lesser team in the prem). Wilshere will be a major star for Arsenal (& England) regardless of Ramsey, though he might have to move positions (left side instead of central midfield). Henri Lansbury and Fran Merida are the players most likely to be affected as next year as they are likely to play on the right (Lansbury) and left (Merida). Both players have outstanding potential but maybe no quite in the Cesc, Wilshere and Ramsey level. WOW – great problem to have!!
i dont think ramsey signing will effect other young players. he will provide more competition but that’s a good thing. u need competition to stay focus and determine to be better. lansbury, merida, randall and gibbs they all still very young so highly unlikely any of them will get many first team action except carling cup. those youngster will start to push for 1st team after another 2 seasons, unless any of them have the maturity of fabregas, they might give someone on the 1st team a run for their money.
Lansbury, Merida, Randall and Gibbs are all OLDER than Ramsey. They will be competing for the same playing time, particularly Merida & Lansbury who would expect to break into the 1st team squad.
The squad is getting bigger. A 5-6 youths are worth a look in this year. And 2 or 3 may well move up a level. Some already with a look in are going to be more experienced (Diaby, Walcott, Dennilson, Bendtner, traore)and I think we may buy 2 more yet.
This is a good thing.
And competition for places is essential.
We have a good bunch for the next 3 years and the best of them will break through. Simple.
Along with this it is our youthfulness and consequent energy that has seen us score so many late goals.
And this is in part becoming a small part of our identity as a team and what we might expect.
Competition will be good.It will show which of our young talents are capable of performing consistently at the top. the problem we had with our earlier batch of youngster, Pennant, Bentley, were a head better than the other youngsters. These two became cocky and their development stalled. Now we have a batch of close to ten players of troughly the same class and talent. with competition and togetherness; some of them will drop out but I believe most of them will develop as a team,much like the old MU batch of players. Just love what Wenger is doing. Building our club long term future, besides trying to win trophies now. Most clubs focus on the present and when their team gets old, like AC Milan, panics and buys anybody that comes on.
Two more signings PLEASE!!!! be Spain’s David Villa. And who could we get as the strongest center defender on Arsenals radar? Has anyone heard of any central defenders or your thoughts?
lanbury is a DM so it wont effect him as much however it will effect gibbs merdia and randall
You guys, I think you can all forget about ever seeing Gibbs or Randall make it at Arsenal. I like them both but they are not nearly good enough. Randall doesn’t even make the England U-19 team. I, personally, do not see any reason for them to remain at the club for another season.
Gibbs is a winger. Next season he will have Walcott, Rosicky, Vela, Nasri, Ramsey and Traore all in front of him in the wing positions and Wenger will probably play Denilson, Barazite or Merida there instead of Gibbs.
Randall is a CM. He will have Fabregas, Gilberto, Diaby, Denilson, Song and Lansbury all in front of him and even Rosicky, Ramsey and Nasri would much rather play there if Fabregas, Diaby and Denilson al get injured.
So, I think Gibbs and Randall should be allowed to move on along with Jay Simpson. It would be great to see those homegrown talents make it, but I don’t see it happen.
To the subject. If Ramsey is an obstacle for any young player than it’s a good thing. That means that we have better players than we had before. If Traore and even Merida have to leave the club than it was because they lost the fight against the likes of Ramsey and Nasri. We all want Arsenal to fight for titles and that means that we have to let a lot of talents go, they simply aren’t good enough for the Arsenal.