Wenger: I was convinced Ramsey would stay at Arsenal

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes Aaron Ramsey would not have opted to leave the club were he still in charge.

The Welshman will leave north London for pastures new at the end of the season after he signed a pre-contract agreement with Italian giants Juventus earlier this month.

Why is Ramsey leaving Arsenal? Five key things to know…

1. Ramsey will end his 11-year tenure with Arsenal when he joins Juventus in June.
2. The 28-year-old has signed a four-year deal with the Old Lady, and will reportedly earn around £400,000 per week.
3. Wenger has previously called the move “a loss for Arsenal” believing few possess the unique qualities of Ramsey.
4. The Frenchman believes Ramsey is not leaving for financial reasons or a desire to part from the Gunners.
5. But with a more lucrative contract and the prospect of winning a myriad of titles, the transfer makes sense for Ramsey.

Wenger signed the Caerphilly playmaker from boyhood club Cardiff City in 2008, but the Wales international has been used sporadically since Unai Emery began his Arsenal reign last summer.

After experiencing blockades in contract negotiations, Ramsey turned down a new deal earlier this campaign, but Wenger believes the two parties would have encountered no such problems were he still at the helm.

“In the case of Ramsey, it’s not a question at all of [running down his] contract, not at all,” he said.

“I think it was not a financial situation and not a desire of the player to leave. But, as long as I was there, I was convinced that the player would stay.

“What happened after, I don’t know. It was not a financial problem, not a desire to leave problem.”

Arsenal are now faced with a huge issue when Ramsey leaves at the end of the season as their will be a void to fill in the No 10 role, with Mesut Ozil’s role in Emery’s XI still uncertain.

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The German has not been able to rejuvenate his career under the Spanish tactician after stagnating under Wenger, starting just 13 Premier League matches and creating just two assists across all competitions.

Ozil signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal in January last year but has suffered injury problems and has been left out of matchday squads for tactical reasons under Emery.

The Spaniard will look to address the issue in the summer and the Gunners have already been linked with a host of names, including German wonderkid Kai Havertz.

Wenger discusses current market

The Frenchman was speaking at the Laureus World Sport Awards, where he was awarded a lifetime achievement prize, and he went on to discuss the exorbitant pricing of players, believing the market has been over-saturated by lavish deals, resulting in players not wanting to commit to long-term contract extensions.

He added: “It’s very simple: the transfer market is so big now that they think ‘if I run out my contract, I will not get the whole [outlay of the] transfer [but] I get the big part of it’,” he explained, having encountered similar issues when the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil approached the final stages of their contracts with Arsenal.

“Adding that to inflation means that the financial incentive for a player is to run out his contract. You’ll see that more and more, because a good player today [costs] between 50 and 100 million.

“So, the player will not be bought for that price. His interest is to run the contract down and say to the club who wants to buy him ‘okay, I don’t want 50 [million], but I want a part of it’.”

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