Pitch-side: the Tale of Ramsdale

Speaking about the Aaron Ramsdale transfer worth £24million plus £6million add-ons, lots of memes happen to emerge to the surface across the fatamorgana of timeline. Mainly about Ramsdale being relegated three times (Chesterfield, Bournemouth, Sheffield) and almost relegated one time with AFC Wimbledon.

And that he's gonna bring Arsenal down too.

That's the cruelty of meme for you. Aaron, to the extent that he had to limit the comments section on his Instagram account due to the outrage by the Arsenal fans not wanting him to be at the club. With his surmountable fee, the reaction seems understandable. Even so, that just further highlights the toxicity of the Arsenal fans in my honest and humble opinion. And talking about statistics, people tend to easily forget that despite being relegated three times, Ramsdale did win the player of the season award three times (Wimbledon, Bournemouth, Sheffield) plus young player of the season award with Sheffield United.

Toxicity is all about negativity gaslighting the positives it seems.

Another banter being "Arsenal sold Martínez (one of the best goalkeeper in the league they said) for £20million and bought Ramsdale (one of the worst keeper source trust me dude) for £30million made the business itself sound so so Arsenal". This—sorry to say—is the most holy crap shit I've ever heard slandering the club just because its name is Arsenal. From my perspective as a fan, let me first present you the chronology of this unwanted yet inevitable transfer saga,

all started and ignited by Brighton's Neal Maupay.

the Chronology

Bernd was injured during the 1-2 loss against the Seagulls. Emi Martínez got in to succeed in the few final fixtures of the league, getting three clean sheets over nine appearances. Due to his commanding and formidable display, he was selected to play in the FA Cup final against Chelsea. Arsenal won 2-1. The consistently fine form continued in the Community Shield where he saved one penalty to help the club win the preseason trophy.

For me, he won the two silverware for the club. That's how good he is.

But with Bernd coming on recovering from injury, Emi wanted to secure the numero uno shirt or plead to be allowed to leave. Basically, giving Mikel a headache of a choice. As Bernd did save not just shots but also crucial points for the team throughout the campaign and proven vital in their course of winning the FA Cup as well. Bernd shone brightest arguably during the Unai Emery tenure but he's still an important figure for Arteta. Arteta stuck to Bernd, leaving Emi with no choice but to move elsewhere in pursuit of his country's number one spot.

Martínez left for the West Midlands side in a £20million agreement, which saw the fund got used to trigger the release clause of Thomas Partey from Wanda Metropolitano.

Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson was brought in as Bernd's understudy but the fans were never feeling convinced with him in goal—mainly because of his diminutive figure between the sticks and a horror show against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup tie which saw City won 4-1. But I personally think he could improve and be better if not because of the toxicity from certain grey patches of the fanbase.

When suddenly Leno openly spoke about leaving and seeking new challenges.

The fans were obnoxious but Arsenal were volatile. Nervously shaken. Suddenly the thoughts and rumours of Bernd not gonna extend his contract lingering around with a strong sniff. The club was anxious. With Rúnar running out of fans' favour, Arsenal did an emergency signing of Mathew Ryan on loan from Amex Stadium in January, without any signs of noise. Such a shockingly quiet transfer. Ryan at that time fell backwards after he got replaced with Robert Sánchez in Brighton's goal thus inciting doubts whether he could do well in his Gunner stint.

Leno did a howler, got dismissed as an obligatory invitation for Ryan to make his debut for Arsenal against Aston Villa in the next fixture. Surprisingly, Rúnar who played in goal after Leno's red card against Wolves, did well to keep the scoreline at 1-2. But of course, toxicity didn't pay a care.

Ryan played three games for Arsenal, getting a maiden clean sheet for his boyhood club and hockey-assisted an equalising goal in the final minutes against Fulham from a corner kick. What an exemplary involvement from a cameo, fair enough. The club had the choice to make Ryan permanent but due to his status as a non-homegrown, the club relented and Ryan is now playing in Spain representing Real Sociedad.

The club did consider an option to buy André Onana with a cheap fee but with his non-homegrown status and being banned until November, Arsenal are determined to find another suitor.

Ramsdale emerged as a candidate when Emi Martínez enjoyed his time at Villa Park having 15 league clean sheets—joint-most with club legend Brad Friedel—and fresh from helping Messi and his country won the Copa América in which Messi reportedly claimed that without Emiliano Martínez, he wouldn't have won the title. I think that was disrespesctful to the other goalies—Franco Armani, Agustín Marchesín, Juan Musso because these three are decent custodians but never mind, Emiliano Martínez is great as well.

So the satire (read: trolling and bantering) began. From signing Brighton's third-choice centre back for £50million to buying one of the worst keeper in the league for £30million. If I were to be asked, I would also be fuming on how Yves Bissouma so keenly yearned for Arsenal to place a bid on his behalf, to play for the Gunners yet Arsenal completely isolated him and opted for Ben White instead. I truly pity him even though I think Albert Sambi Lokonga is a complementary addition. Arsenal have more money so they need to commit more.

And they committed to Aaron Ramsdale. The deal initially almost collapsed but Sheffield came again with a consolation decrement on the negotiation table. Arsenal are tempted and Arteta is keen so the deal is done. As simple as that. Ramsdale is seen as the successor of Bernd just in case if he's really leaving and for time being, to be his understudy and learn from him in training to improve for the betterment of himself. His future is vastly bright at the age of just 23. That's the gist of the agreement. That he's a homegrown (HG) status and his peak is still far ahead of him despite having played 6840 minutes of professional football. That has to be a praiseworthy attribute to be noted, no?

The end of chronology. Then the banters and trolls pouring in. It has to be emphasised that the departure of Emiliano Martínez and the arrival of Aaron Ramsdale didn't happen in the same transfer window. And Ramsdale is not a direct replacement of Martínez. Time and time again, needless to say that Emi and Bernd both are great keepers and neither deserved to be a bench warmer. So Arsenal cannot be despised and demonised just because simply letting him leave. There are other relevant questions like "why Ramsdale instead of Sam Johnstone?" and "why Dean Henderson didn't get relegated with Sheffield (they got 9th in the league) but Ramsdale went down?" Does that make Henderson better than Ramsdale? I've sorted out statistics to prove my point and with that basis I frankly think that Henderson is great in defense mode but Ramsdale is better in attacking attributes which Arteta might need for his play-from-the-back approach.

And yes, a goalkeeper is not a striker who is sought to score week in week out. That's the ugly truth, that a match is won by goals not by saves or clean sheets.

the Verdict

I've seen Ramsdale in action since his Bournemouth days and started to follow him much closer ever since. He (and Bournemouth) was really unlucky to not be able to evade relegation in the 2019/20 season as they finished 18th in the league which saw the relegation battle were decisively fought until the last fixture of the campaign. The season saw Ramsdale collected five clean sheets in 37 appearances, raking up 129 saves and also assisted once as an icing on the cake to a colourful resumé. The season afterwards where he kept his top flight slot with Sheffield United, he also managed to collect five clean sheets over 38 appearances making 147 saves in the process. That's a remarkable progress of a budding talent, knowing Sheffield 20/21 finished last in the league thus can be evaluated as worse than Bournemouth 19/20 side under the prodigy Eddie Howe. As an avid fan and a proud follower, I can only pray for the best and hope that he can find his fulcrum of consistency and breaking point of his career at the Emirates. Picking up a quote from the legendary David Seaman, "I started getting a load of stick because the fans didn't want me. They were all singing 'Lukic is better than Seaman' and 'You'll never play for Arsenal'. There are some similarities and hopefully he will go on to have a very good career at Arsenal,".

The other similarity being Seaman was the England third-choice goalkeeper in Euro 1990 while Ramsdale was the third-choice goalie for England in Euro 2020. The resemblance is uncanny. Whether from the perspective of the player itself, or from the point of view of the fanatics. One thing remains; the toxicity from certain fans, the same fans that hailed Seaman as their legend a decade later. I admit that undeniably his price tag is extensively exaggerated due to his raw age and his homegrown status but that's English tax for you. Lending from a Sheffield United insider, Arsenal got Ramsdale for a cheap. Which means the Blades value him maybe higher than £40million. That's why he was their player AND young player of the season for the club.

the Address

For the fans, please get behind the players. Fine if it's Willian. It's not wrong to be critical. But there are differences between being critical and being abusive. This attitude cannot be welcomed let alone to be tolerated. Ramsdale didn't need to limit his Instagram comment section for this. If you're not agree with the club for paying a high fee, at the very least blame the technical director. Don't personally attack players like this. Ramsdale even brought his granddad's ashes to the signing of his contract. That's how big it means to him and his entire family. Don't ruin this pinch magic moment of a beautiful game. Sports are meant to be united with love, not with hatred. Toxicity can never be allowed a spot in the community, let alone in the fanbase. To the sincerely pure and nature-driven fans, don't let yourselves be influenced by bullshit crap trolls and banters tend to trigger people for the sake of free-flowing clouts. As the name itself is Arsenal, there will be so many enigmatic agendas (read: stinkers) raised against us. They said Arsenal are no more a big club yet they could never stop murmuring about us, never leave us alone. What's that supposed to mean?

All the best for new signings. I think they are young but promisingly talented and will be worthy of bringing the club forward to the foreseeably vivid future. I hope there are more to come, and more shall leave too.

I believe that toxicity is there somewhere, everywhere. Not just within the Arsenal supporters. The concern is whether toxicity is handled and moulded to become a detested abomination, or to be ignored and secluded until it dies horribly remoted off people's attention. Remember, at the end of the day, to err is human. And players are indeed humane. They have feelings too. While feeding off toxicity as you hide behind the 'keyboard warrior' tag would get you nowhere. Never let yourself get surrounded by negativity and loathed aghast. Get behind the players and support them unconditionally.

All the best for 2021/22 season, Arsenal.

This Write up was written by Isyhraff Marwan who you can follow @IsyhraffMarwan5 on Twitter. Thank you Isyhraff Marwan for the write up on padangbolasepak.com!

Pitch-Side: Is a new series by Padangbolasepak.com where passionate and eloquent football fans can share their sincerest thoughts about the state of the sport. Disclaimer, it is their respectful opinion on the matter, padangbolasepak.com just merely provides the space to host these honest write ups.

Padang Bola Sepak AdminAugust 25, 2021