Any lingering hopes that Aaron Ramsey might reverse his wont to leave Arsenal at the end of the season appear to have been lanced with reports emanating from the Italian press that Juventus have almost closed the deal.
With less than six months to run on his Arsenal contract, Ramsey has been free to negotiate with foreign clubs since the start of January. Several of Europe’s bihitters are known to be interested, with Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid and the two Milan sides all speculated to have been circling overhead at one point or another.
However, it would appear that Juve have claimed the spoils, with Sport Mediaset journalist Marco Barzaghi confirming that Ramsey has reached a pre-contract agreement with the Italian side.
#Ramsey ha già firmato per la Juve .. si attende l’annuncio del primo colpo del 2019 @Sport_Mediaset
— Marco Barzaghi (@MarcoBarzaghi) 3 January 2019
Indeed, Barzaghi also claims that Juve intend to make a formal announcement soon, likely as soon as the January transfer window shuts.
Well. You can’t help but feel like this is a mistake on Arsenal’s part but if the club weren’t willing to grant Ramsey pay-parity with top earner Mesut Ozil, then this is just the way it’s going to have to be.
Looking back, perhaps slinging a whopping new £350,000-a-week deal at Ozil just after contract talks with Ramsey had come to a impasse last January wasn’t the smartest move.