Aaron Ramsey has said he does not understand why the offer of a contract extension was withdrawn by Arsenal. The midfielder had been close to signing an agreement when the club he has represented for 10 years unexpectedly reneged on their offer.
“Hopefully somebody will come up and tell me why,” he said. “I’ll accept that if there’s a reason. When the time is right, I probably will find out but that hasn’t happened yet.
“There is no contract on the table at the moment so there is nothing for me to consider or whatever. We all know that the contract was taken away off the table. I’m not sure exactly why because a few weeks before we sort of agreed and I was ready to sign.”
Ramsey captained the team that recorded an 11th consecutive win at Sporting in Lisbon in the Europa League, but has been more peripheral in recent Premier League games, starting on the bench. That is a source of frustration.
“I think any player who is on the bench would be disappointed not to play but I’m part of the team and I want the team to do well,” he said. “We are all in it together to try and achieve the same objective. I’m going out and playing the way I have always played. I try to give my best for the team, help the team and try and go out there and play the best I can for myself as well. Nothing’s in my head when I’m out there; I’m just trying to have fun on the football pitch.
“These things happen in football and I’m just concentrating on playing now. I’m not really thinking about anything else too much. I’ve got other things as well in my life that I’m delighted with. I had twins last week, so everything is good at the moment for me. I can’t complain … It has been a very positive run. In a lot of the games we’ve found it difficult in the first half but we come out then strong in the second half and we’ve blown some teams away.”
Ramsey has not ruled out moving abroad but he did have a straight answer to the question of whether he would be interested in a move to Tottenham: “No.”
