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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Simon Collings

Arsenal: Mikel Arteta addresses Aaron Ramsdale transfer speculation amid Newcastle rumours

Mikel Arteta wants Aaron Ramsdale to stay at Arsenal, amid reported interest from Newcastle ahead of the January transfer window.

Newcastle are considering signing a new goalkeeper this January after Nick Pope suffered a dislocated shoulder in the Magpies’ 1-0 win over Manchester United on Saturday.

There are fears Pope could be out for months and Ramsdale has been touted as a possible replacement.

The goalkeeper has lost his place as Arsenal’s No1 to David Raya and last month England manager Gareth Southgate said he could not guarantee him a place in his Euros squad if he was not playing regularly.

But asked about Ramsdale’s future in relation to the interest from Newcastle, Arteta said: “I want Aaron with us. I am very happy to have two very, very good goalkeepers and Aaron is staying with us.

Aaron Ramsdale (R) has lost his place to David Raya (REUTERS)

“He’s willing to play. Like any player, he wants to play for Arsenal. That’s what he wants to do.

"As well for England, it’s not like he has started a lot of games, so hopefully we can help him be better here so then he can play for England.

“We want to be better, so we want to add to what we already have. That’s the intention.”

Although he wants Ramsdale to stay, Arsenal boss Arteta refused to offer guarantees over any player.

“I won’t do that to any player," he asserted. "Any player. 

“I cannot tell you that any Arsenal player is not going to leave in January. Or he is to stay here for the next three years. I won’t say that no player is going to go to Newcastle. Or no member of the staff, either. I won’t say it. If you say yes or no, I won’t say it.

“I cannot guarantee that nobody is going to be leaving in January. For Newcastle or any other club.”

Arteta made a point of how Arsenal want to “add” to their squad in January and they are understood to be interested in signing a midfielder.

“When we get to January we will see where we are, what we need, what the injury update is. Are we going to recover certain players? We will assess,” he said.

“We already have a plan in place to make sure that we can be proactive if something needs to be done, that is our job. It depends as sometimes there are opportunities in the market and also the team needs something that it doesn’t have, something comes up that you don’t expect. 

“You have to be prepared, that is for sure. Last year there were certain things that we could not do in the summer as well at the end that we wanted to address in January and we were still not able to do them.”

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