09 March 2024 , 00:00
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Mikel Arteta has admitted Arsenal's signing of Aaron Ramsdale was "very controversial", but insisted he is "really happy" the goalkeeper joined.
The Gunners forked out £30million to sign Ramsdale back in 2021 after he had suffered consecutive relegations from the Premier League with Bournemouth and Sheffield United. The move was criticised at the time, but Ramsdale quickly displaced Bernd Leno as Arteta's first-choice between the sticks.
However, the 25-year-old has been displaced himself this season by David Raya, who joined from Brentford on loan with an option to buy. Ramsdale has played just one game so far this year, a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in the FA Cup, but is set to start when Arsenal host Brentford tomorrow as Raya is ineligible to play against his parent club.
"The connection on a personal level goes two ways pretty much and I'm really happy that we made the call as a club to sign him," Arteta said when asked about Ramsdale ahead of the fixture.
"It was very controversial to start with but we wanted to change his career in a powerful way and we're really happy." Arteta also insisted Ramsdale is "fully prepared" to start on Saturday, despite his lack of game time.
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"It is what it is," the Spaniard added. "He is fully prepared, he trains really well every day. He is desperate to play like the rest of the boys who haven't had that many opportunities and Saturday is a great day for him.
"He's been brilliant, he's been really good, really supportive, really pushing everything in training like I expected and it's a joy to have two top goalkeepers in the team. One of the toughest things to deal with is for players who don't have the amount of time that they deserve.
Aaron Ramsdale is set to make a rare start for Arsenal against Brentford this weekend (Michael Zemanek/REX/Shutterstock)"Not only Aaron, but with many of those, but we have an unbelievable group of players. We try to be straight and explain things and be close to them and give them the support that we want and then, when they have the opportunity, at the end they want to contribute to the team the best possible way and that's what Aaron will try to do on Saturday."
Arteta also credited his players and staff after he was named the Premier League manager of the month, having guided Arsenal to five consecutive league wins. "It's a great honour in this league to get recognised in this way so I want to say thank you to the team and the staff for always being supportive and making this happen," he said.
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