'Football is heartless' - Ramsdale urged to leave Arsenal to save England career

Stuart Telford

• 22 Sep 2023 10:25 CDT
• 3 min read

Aaron Ramsdale has been urged to leave Arsenal ahead of next year's European Championship now that his place as first-choice goalkeeper is under threat from David Raya.

Ramsdale was impressive for the Gunners last season, making 94 saves and keeping 14 clean sheets as they finished as runners-up to Manchester City in the Premier League.

But Arsenal added Raya on loan from Brentford in the summer, with an option to make the loan permanent for £27 million at the end of the season.

READ: Arsenal star Raya with CLEAR message for dropped Ramsdale

The Spaniard has now started the last two games in all competitions, keeping clean sheets against Everton domestically and then PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, and Gabby Agbonlahor thinks the writing is on the wall for Ramsdale.

'He probably won't get on the plane!'

"Ramsdale will be in the horrors now," the former Aston Villa and England striker told talkSPORT. "The Euros are coming he's thinking to himself 'I've just played for England I've got a chance now.' Now he probably won't even get on the plane!

"… we said it about [Kalvin] Phillips and [Harry] Maguire and these players but I mean Ramsdale, you'd be devastated. He got his team into the Champions League he played a big part of it but football is heartless."

READ: Revealed: The FOUR goalkeepers STILL on Chelsea's radar

Ramsdale won his fourth cap as England beat Scotland 3-1 in the nations' 150th anniversary heritage match 10 days ago, but the goalkeeping spot remains up for grabs under Gareth Southgate, with Jordan Pickford, Sam Johnstone and Nick Pope among those in the running.

Chelsea and Bayern Munich have both emerged as potential destinations should Ramsdale try to force a move away from the Emirates in January.

Ramsdale is valued at €37.7m by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, and is under conteract with Arsenal until 2026 with an option for a further year, so potential suitors would likely have to match at least that fee, despite his potentially diminished status in North London.