Andy Cole accuses Mikel Arteta off ‘mugging off’ Arsenal star | Football

Mikel Arteta has been accused of ‘mugging off’ out of favour goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale by Manchester United legend Andy Cole.

The England international started the season as the club’s No.1 but was quicklyusurped by David Raya upon his arrival from Brentford.

Arteta claimed at the time that he would rotate Ramsdale and Raya throughout the course of the campaign, and even suggested he wouldn’t be averse to swapping them during the course of a match.

Ultimately, however, it has transpired that Raya has emerged as the undisputed first choice between the posts.

Ramsdale has made only two Premier League appearances since Raya made his debut in a 1-0 win over Everton back in September and is unlikely to feature againthis season.

Cole, who started his career at the Gunners, believes Ramsdale has been unfairly treated and misled by the Arsenal boss and has urged him to conisder his future come the end of the campagin.

‘Nine times out of ten, when a player moves to a different club, they’re meant to be their new club’s number one centre-forward, centre-half, goalkeeper or whatever it may be,’ Cole told Betfred.

‘If Aaron makes the move, he will be Newcastle’s number one goalkeeper.

‘I think he’s been hard done by, I really do. He was so good for Arsenal last season and then all of a sudden, Mikel Arteta has gone out and got a new goalkeeper and initially claimed that he had two number ones, which was complete nonsense from day one.

‘The way he’s disregarded Ramsdale has been really disrespectful. He’s mugged him off basically.

‘I like how he goes about his business and he deserves to be treated with a bit more respect, so if he does move on from Arsenal, then he certainly would do a good job at Newcastle.’

Speaking earlier this month, Arteta warned Ramsdale that no talks on his future at Arsenal will take place until the end of the season.

‘Now is the season, now is tomorrow, now is what we have done today and how can we improve tomorrow,’ Arteta said. ‘And those talks are for much after, I think.’

On taking the decision to gamble and replace Bernd Leno with Ramsdale back in the summer of 2021 he added: ‘The connection on a personal level goes two ways pretty much and I’m really happy that we made the call as a club to sign him.’

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