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I had one cretin trying to post ‘receipts’ of my alleged ‘Ramsdale hate’-- which consisted of my saying, when we signed him, that I was concerned Ramsdale would only be as much of an improvement on Leno as Leno in turn had been supposed, at the time of his signing, to have been on Cech: that is, an incremental improvement, especially in ball-playing.
My theory is that the weirdness about Ramsdale not just because some fans have favourites and are excessively defensive about them, but because he looks and sounds (and is named) like an Aardman character. He’s goofily likeable in that way; add in the emotional rollercoaster of last season, and you’ve got a recipe for peculiar attachment.
(Unless, of course, one’s silly enough to believe the utterly loony conspiracy theory that Inaki is deliberately ‘sabotaging our keepers’.)
I tend to think Raya is another incremental improvement, and that Ramsdale has two rolling choices:
Put his head down, adjust to being no. 2, and work to get past the plateau on which he finds himself, or,
Seek life elsewhere.
I would agree with your theory. Ramsdale had a close bond with the north bank fans too, and it was those very fans who I vividly recall going apoplectic on Raya after his mistake from which Alvarez almost scored. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing, and I knew very well it was because they prefer Ramsdale to start. Many fans’ fondness of a player influences their view on their footballing abilities. Raya is the better keeper, he is just more assured and you can see that.
I love Ramsdale too, and I really do feel for him. It must not be nice to lose your spot, and as a goalkeeper that’s even worse, but my single biggest criticism of Wenger was him not being ruthless enough with players. Wenger continued with players far longer than they deserved and that hindered progress. I can’t now sit here and say I don’t like the action took by Arteta. It was ruthless, and he made that decision well in advance of it costing us significant moments.