Arsenal director explains decision to let Aaron Ramsey leave | OneFootball

Aaron Ramsey failed to agree an Arsenal contract extension because the club were unwilling to break the bank for him, Raul Sanllehi has revealed.

The Wales international has penned a four-year deal reportedly worth over €450,000 per week at Juventus, who snapped him up on a free after his contract at the Emirates had been allowed to run down.

In a discussion with the club’s official website, the Gunners’ director of football has explained why an unwillingness to match Juve’s offer led to Ramsey’s exit.

“We have to be responsible for how we manage the club. One of the key things for me is to keep the rationality in the salary balance of the team,” Sanllehi stated.

“Because of our circumstances, because of not renewing Aaron on time, we were in a situation in which Aaron had incredible offers building up on the salary.

“He was really keen on staying with us, he was ready to make the effort but at the end of the whole process we had to be responsible for ourselves and protect the interests of Arsenal.

“We realised we were going to cause an imbalance that would have been very harmful for the team’s sake in the medium and longer term.”

However, Sanllehi did accept responsibility for Ramsey’s exit due to the fact that the club hadn’t acted sooner to prevent him walking away as a free agent.

“Yes, we made an error. The real essence of the problem was that we had reached the last year of his contract and one of our priorities is not to do that,” he said.

“This is the reason why. The only way to get to the end of a contract is when you are ready to release the player but if you want to keep him, you have to renew him before the last year.

“Otherwise, you put yourself in a very weak position. We can’t let that happen. We must avoid losing a player of Aaron’s quality. It isn’t right for us.”