Speaking on The Fellas Podcast, Aaron Ramsdale has been discussing how transfers happen at Arsenal and the deal to sign Oleksandr Zinchenko in the summer.
The Ukrainian arrived at Arsenal from Manchester City during the summer transfer window, and Ramsdale says that this deal took him completely by surprise.
The goalkeeper says that with some transfers, such as Gabriel Jesus, you know beforehand that a player is likely to sign, but Ramsdale says that he had no idea about Zinchenko until a deal was pretty much done.
Ramsdale shocked by Zinchenko
The goalkeeper spoke about Arsenal signing the left-back.
“It depends on how well documented the transfer is. Gabriel Jesus I knew 85, 90 per cent that he was coming to us. Zinchenko on the other hand, that was out of the blue. That gathered speed in about four days. You heard it from someone on Twitter, thought nothing of it, you hear all sorts. Two days later it was deal agreed, three days later he met the team,” Ramsdale said.
Surprising
It’s somewhat surprising to hear Ramsdale speak about this in this way.
Zinchenko’s move to Arsenal was telegraphed months in advance – or at least that’s how it seemed in the media.
Indeed, there were links to Arsenal towards the end of the 21/22 season, and while a deal didn’t happen until mid-July, there were rumblings that it was in the pipeline.
However, it seems as though, from Arsenal’s perspective, this one did move very quickly and that the initial reports about Zinchenko heading to the Emirates may have had an element of guesswork about them.
Ramsdale’s comments here just go to show how quickly Arsenal can move on a transfer, so don’t be shocked if they have one more trick up their sleeve this month.
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