ESPN pundit says 25-year-old Arsenal player now needs to push to leave the club

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Steve Nicol has insisted that Aaron Ramsdale now needs to get himself out of Arsenal after being dropped for David Raya earlier this season.

Nicol was speaking on ESPN following an interview the Arsenal goalkeeper where he spoke about finding the going tough after losing the number one spot.

Mikel Arteta’s treatment of Aaron Ramsdale arguably has to be one of the bigger gambles he has taken during his time at the Emirates. Ramsdale had been the undisputed number one for much of his time in North London. And his form for the large majority of last season was absolutely outstanding.

Nevertheless, Arteta decided that he wanted more from his goalkeepers, it seems. And he decided to let Matt Turner leave while also bringing in David Raya.

Again, Ramsdale seemed to do little wrong in the opening weeks of the campaign. But Arteta still decided to replace him with Raya after the first international break.

Steve Nicol thinks Aaron Ramsdale needs to leave Arsenal

Arteta has never publicly stated who his number one is. But Raya has started both of the Gunners’ Champions League games, as well as the North London derby and the clash with Manchester City. So that is very telling.

Given that Ramsdale did little wrong, it is hard to know what he can do to regain his place. And with that, Steve Nicol has insisted that Ramsdale may be better off leaving the club.

“He can’t keep this up, what he’s doing now. Because from the very beginning, when we found out that Raya was coming, he’s been such a trooper for his manager and Arsenal, saying all the right things, doing all the right things, that can’t last too much longer,” he told ESPN.

“At the end of the day, he’s a competitor, he wants to play. And something’s going to blow. Something will blow. And he absolutely 100 percent has to get out.

“It’s one thing when you’re younger and you’re trying to get in the team, and you reach a stage and you feel as though you should be playing. You understand that you need to make it known to the manager that you think you should be playing, but you can’t go throwing the dummy out your pram because you don’t have that standing yet as a player.

“But when you’ve been in the position he’s been in, when you’ve performed for your team and the manager the way he has, and all of a sudden you get dropped on your backside for apparently no real reason, as I said, so far he’s said the right things. That’s going to blow, absolutely. And he needs to get himself out of there.”

Gunners unlikely to make exit easy for 25-year-old

The problem for Ramsdale is that Arteta is not necessarily going to let the goalkeeper leave. He will be delighted that he has two international goalkeepers pushing each other in training.

And replacing Ramsdale is going to cost the Gunners a lot. Certainly, it may be hard to convince another goalkeeper to come in if they face being an understudy to Raya.

Arsenal spent £30 million to sign Ramsdale. But they are surely going to demand so much more if another club wants to secure his signature.

So Ramsdale may perhaps want to consider his future in the coming months. But getting a move away may be much tougher than Nicol potentially realises.