The world is still recovering from the deal that Manchester United pulled off in bringing Paul Pogba back to the Premier League. €105 million to bring the 23-year-old from Juventus does seem a tad high; well it is extremely high for a player who still has to reach the pinnacle of his ability and performances.
There is a lot of money being spent in today’s transfer window but surely this much could have bought them a better player or a similar player to the quality of Gareth Bale or Cristiano Ronaldo when they were in their prime and were carrying teams singlehandedly.
Ronaldo was doing that at Manchester United while Gareth Bale was doing that for Tottenham but one player seems to have gone under the radar and done extremely well for Arsenal and could have actually been worth the same amount as Pogba.
We aren’t talking about Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez but actually about Aaron Ramsey. Yes, before you choke on something, Ramsey was one of the best players for the Gunners in the 2013/14 season and almost lifted the Premier League title with the Gunners.
The 25-year-old had scored 16 goals in that campaign and he could have actually done a lot more but that did not happen as he missed around 3 months of the season due to injury. The best goal return for a player like Pogba, who is seeing much more of the ball at Juventus, was 10 goals. Ramsey, in fact, scored all this in just 34 games but Pogba took 49 games this season to reach double digits.
The other reason why Ramsey should be worth the same as Pogba is due to the fact that the Arsenal star has played in a tougher league than the French midfielder. The Premier League is no easy place to make a name for yourself but Ramsey, after a rather career threatening injury at Stoke, did become one of the go-to guys for Arsenal.
Pogba, on the other hand, is a pretty good player; there is no denying that but how many times ha he changed the course of the game on his own? Even in Euro 2016 when all the talk was about him leading France to glory, it was Moussa Sissoko, Dimitri Payet and Antoine Griezmann who picked up the slack and helped France reach the final.
It wasn’t that Wales ran only on Ramsey’s engine, they also had the likes of Joe Allen and Gareth Bale of course but playing for a nation like Wales and taking them to the semis of a European championship does deserve a lot of credit.
Ramsey in fact, scored six goals last season, despite being played in a range of positions. From out on the wing to the central midfield, he can play almost everywhere. Pogba can play mostly in midfield and hasn’t been tested in the toughest league in the world either.
He did move away from the Premier League to hone his skills in Italy and the French midfielder did learn from the best. Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and even Sami Khedira all have definitely had a hand in the growth of Pogba; Ramsey though has had to deal with all of this with an Arsenal team that is constantly losing out their best players, year after year.
The fact that the Welsh star has been doing well in a team which isn’t dominating the league while Pogba has done alright for Juventus, who keep winning the league, just shows that Ramsey is on the same level as Pogba.
We don’t think either player is worth the crazy amount Manchester United paid for the French star but Ramsey, thanks to his performances and match winning ability, is worth more than Pogba. At least for now.