Sad that talent like Ramsey is more appreciated abroad
Brit pair in titanic battle to relish
MANY football transfers prompt merely a shrug of the shoulders and only the mildest passing interest in the financial details. It doesn’t feel like that with the impending departure from Arsenal of their admirably long-serving and creatively talented midfielder Aaron Ramsey.
This is a move that saddens the heart, one that is a matter of regret over a player who has been with the Gunners for more than a decade and who could and should have been a vital link to the new era under Unai Emery.
It prompts serious questions.
How good is Ramsey? Well, when Arsenal withdrew a contract offer after many months of talks it sparked an immediate scramble among all the best clubs in
Europe to snap up the 28-yearold – Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain and Juventus at the head of a long queue.
So why are Arsenal letting him go at the height of his career?
Only those in charge at the Emirates Stadium can answer that. They appear to be in a blinkered minority about the value of the Welshman to a high calibre football team. Ramsey is back where he was as a 16-year-old sensation at Cardiff City when every big club in the land was chasing his signature.
I happened to see his full professional debut in an FA Cup third round tie, this weekend 12 years ago, and his potential was instantly clear. The kid was the best player on the pitch by a mile.
All the signs are that Ramsey has opted to join Juventus in a deal most likely to be concluded in the summer, but perhaps even in the next few weeks of the winter transfer window if Sami Khedira goes the other way to Arsenal.
Why Juventus? There is another question – one answered with certainty. Ramsey is intrigued to join the Juventus crusade to win the Champions League for the first time since 1996.
He is equally stirred by the prospect of playing alongside one of football’s all-time greats in Cristiano Ronaldo. This is the biggest current story in European football – the risk that Ronaldo took in leaving Real Madrid to help rejuvenate football in Italy and chase more unique individual glory.
It could have been a hopeless failure. It is shaping into a tale for the ages. He is top scorer in their Serie A league at the winter break with 15 goals and history beckons on a multitude of fronts.
If Juventus capture the Champions League this season it would mean Ronaldo has six triumphs in the competition to equal Gento.
He would also become the only man, alongside Clarence Seedorf, to win it with three different clubs.
If he stays top scorer Ronaldo will be the first to achieve that feat in three different major European leagues.
Seven others have done it in two countries, including John Charles and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Of course it is an intriguing challenge for Ramsey.
He will be at the heart of the game. That’s where the very best professional footballers want to be.
It’s why Jadon Sancho quit the juniors of Manchester
City to move to Germany and become an integral part of another special story this season – the rise of Borussia Dortmund.
Sancho has performed so well that Dortmund have sold Christian Pulisic to Chelsea for an astonishing £60million fee.
Chelsea, in turn, have received a reported £30m offer from Bayern Munich for their teenage ace
Callum Hudson-Odoi, who is struggling to get match time at Stamford Bridge.
There is a theme here – a sense that English and British talent is being tempted away from the
Premier League because they are more appreciated abroad.
Shouldn’t that make us all pause for thought as we enter a shiny New Year of football?
FROOME
THERE will be many titanic battles in sport in 2019, not least at the cricket and rugby world cups.
But the biggest British duel will be at the Tour de France, where team-mates and previous Yellow Jersey champions Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome will face a profoundly difficult showdown.
Cycling teams cannot truly accommodate two leaders. They are set up to work for one main rider, and splitting their energy would be supremely risky.
It seems as if neither Thomas nor Froome will budge in their ambition, with both opting to ignore the Giro D’Italia and concentrate on the Tour de France.
The battle will be as hot as molten lava even before the race begins.