Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has warned Mikel Arteta his treatment of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale is likely to lead to further problems down the line.
Ramsdale played a big part in Arsenal’s resurgence last season but he has been benched this year in favour of summer signing David Raya, who joined on loan from Brentford with a view to a permanent transfer next year.
While Arteta has refused to rule out reinstating Ramsdale in future, Wenger has warned the current Arsenal boss that rotating goalkeepers is a recipe for disaster.
“I don’t believe in rotating goalkeepers, it’s a lack of clarity of the hierarchy,” he told beIN Sports.
“That doesn’t work unless the hierarchy exists until you say ‘look it’s two or three bad performances and now it’s a change and I give a chance to the other one’. The hierarchy has to be clear.
“On the other hand, when you’re in this position, it happened to me many times, you have a good team and you want to improve it. You look and think ‘what can I improve?’ Maybe the distribution from the back.
“It happened to me with the centre-backs, you want the guy who has better distribution from the back. And then you realise he is less good defensively and his first job is to defend.”
Asked which goalkeeper he would choose for his team, Wenger declined to make a decision but offered his support to Ramsdale.
“Personally I like Ramsdale,” he said. “If I was in his position, I would not give up because I believe he has a chance to come back into the team.
“[Is Ramsdale] better? I don’t know. I just think Ramsdale has made decisive saves in the games last season. They were not happy maybe with his feet.”
Raya has had a mixed run as Arsenal’s starting goalkeeper, failing to inspire confidence in a number of games despite keeping five clean sheets from a possible nine.
90min understands that Ramsdale is currently happy to continue fighting for his future at the Emirates but he may be forced to reconsider his situation at the end of the season, with Chelsea among the sides monitoring proceedings.
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