There’s no denying that Aaron Ramsey has been crucial to Arsenal’s success over the last two seasons and it hasn't gone unnoticed, and with Barcelona losing living legend Xavi Hernandez to Qatari club Al Sadd there’s been strong rumours circulating in the press that the European Champions are planning an audacious €50 million move for the Welshman.
But would Barca make Aaron Ramsey the 15th most expensive player ever to just let him sit on the bench all season, or would he play a key role in their treble defence?
In this season's Premier League Ramsey has bagged himself six goals and six assists. Those stats may not blow you away but when you consider that this season Ramsey has played as a central midfielder, a defensive midfielder and as a right midfielder that’s not too bad at all. He’s also completed 86% of his passes in the BPL and 48 passes per game which is vital to play in Spain. However he would have two main contenders – Ivan Rakitic and Andres Iniesta.
It’s unlikely that Ramsey would play ahead of Iniesta because Barca wouldn't want to risk losing two legends in two years but looking at his stats this season Ramsey could take his starting spot off of him fairly easily. In La Liga this season Iniesta failed to find the back of the net once and only had one assist in 24 appearances. Although it has to be said that Iniesta has compete with much better players for assists and goals and his job in the side is to get the ball the Messi, Neymar and Suarez and allow them to work their magic. Having said that this has been a poor season for Iniesta’s standards.
This season was Ivan Rakitic’s debut season for Barcelona after his transfer from Sevilla in June last year. Fans and journalists alike consider the Croatian a success and he even grabbed the opening goal in the Champions League final against Juventus. Rakitic managed five goals and seven assists in La Liga and also completed the same number of passed per game as Ramsey (48).
Going by stats alone it’s obvious that Ramsey would walk into Barcelona’s starting XI but there’s several other factors that need to be considered. La Liga is a lot less physical and lot more passing based. Ramsey has the lowest pass completion rate of the three (86%) but has more chances created per game (1.62) which suggests that he could not only replace both Iniesta and Rakitic but do a better job than them.
I do believe that Ramsey would fit into Barcelona’s first team but I wouldn’t be a good Career move for him. Ramsey has played for Arsenal since he was 18 years old and it’s clear that no one knows him better than Arsene Wenger. He should stay at Arsenal for at least another year and help Arsenal push for the Premier League title. When he’s done that, then he will be ready to move to a bigger club with bigger ambitions.
Source: DSG
