Paul Merson’s ‘lazy’ Odegaard & Ramsdale comments come back to bite him

The Daily Mirror have revived some comments made by Paul Merson during the summer, when Arsenal had signed Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale, and it does not make good reading for the former Arsenal man.

Martin Odegaard scored against Watford on Sunday and put in another display that shows why people are talking about him as a possible Arsenal captain in the future.

Despite impressing during his short loan (although not if you only look at his goal stats which is what it seems Merse has done), Merson described it as a ‘lazy’ signing.

And that wasn’t even the worst bit because he also has a go at Arsenal signing Aaron Ramsdale.

“Mikel Arteta is making a mistake signing Martin Odegaard – and his job could soon be on the line,” Merson said in his Daily Star column in August.

“Arsenal have already lost to Brentford and now they have to play Chelsea and Manchester City.

“They could be bottom of the league and I don’t think the board are going to hang around with Arteta for long if he goes on a bad run.

“But what are they doing signing Odegaard?

“If Odegaard really wanted to be at Arsenal he would have signed at the end of his loan.

“But he didn’t want to join them. He wanted to go back to Real Madrid.

“In days gone by that would have been it. Arsenal would have said – sorry, you’ve had your chance. Next!

“He didn’t exactly pull up any trees on loan did he? He only scored two goals!

“I think it’s a mistake. I think it’s another lazy signing. No other Premier League team was going for him.

“No-one else is trying to sign Aaron Ramsdale either – and he’s let in 125 goals in two seasons in the Premier League!

“I don’t know who’s picking these players. I wonder if it really is Arteta. But whoever it is, it will be Arteta paying the price if it all goes wrong.”

If you had to name the best players at Arsenal at the minute, both Odegaard and Ramsdale would be in the top five.

The other Arteta starting signings – Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu – have been similarly impressive.

Odegaard has five goals and four assists this season, having played 44 key passes that led to a shot on goal, more than anyone else at Arsenal (Saka is next with 41).

Ramsdale is third, behind Manchester City’s Ederson (15) and Liverpool’s Alisson (14) in terms of cleansheets (11) – and he missed the first three league games! He is also third when it comes to his shot save percentage – ahead of both those players.

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