Arsenal have reportedly been hit by another contract agreement headache with Aaron Ramsey not being able to seal a renewal deal with the club he’s been with since July 2008 after his move from home club Cardiff. His agent has blamed the club in a tweet and the player himself has pointed fingers at the club for not doing their part as allegedly agreed upon. With this merry go round, the chances of Ramsey leaving on the free next summer or at a fee in the winter is high now, hence we look at a possible replacement in his absence.
Emile Smith-Rowe. The 18 year old English player has shown great signs on the pitch especially since the arrival of gaffer Unai Emery. Many fans have called for him to be included more in games than sporadically been seen. But the question is will he or is he capable of replacing Aaron Ramsey if he leaves? Undoubtedly Aaron Ramsey has been a very important part of the Arsenal Squad since his potential began to materialize, scoring goals, assisting and even his work rate, despite all the criticisms his role in the squad cannot go unnoticed and even Unai Emery has acknowledged that.
Ramsey has often times been deployed as a box to box midfielder which is his natural role or as a right midfielder to add steel to the midfield depending on the team the Gunners face or quite recently as an attacking midfielder. The central midfielder has shown much work rate in his natural position as a box to box midfielder and assisted the team with goals and even with assists.
Emile Smith-Rowe has played as an attacking midfielder since his arrival at the club in 2010. The 18 year old has shown great promise in that role for the youth side and even for the England U-18 quite recently, playing as a box to box midfielder is a role he’s not really played in in major games, and will making him the ideal replacement of a natural box to box midfielder be the perfect decision to take if Ramsey is to leave?
Many can liken his situation to Cesc Fabregas who debuted for the club at the age of 17 and went on to be club captain, so far he’s shown signs of great promise with his passing abilities, assists and goal scoring in front of goal; scoring a goal in the Europa League in two games and even his prowess in the International Champions Cup with a goal and an assist.
For him to be a replacement of the Aaron Ramsey it will be too early to give a final say of a Yes to that, but for signs shown in his midfield intelligence he is capable. But will he be replacing him in a box to box role of which he hardly plays or he will deployed in his attacking midfield role which he prefers and will that mean senior players like Ozil may be sacrificed to play in a different position or a different formation to accommodate them? Time will tell.
