Arsenal and England goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale now looks set to depart The Emirates after dropping behind David Raya in Mikel Arteta's pecking order.
Aaron Ramsdale has already usurped Nick Pope from his spot in the England set-up with the Newcastle United 'keeper seemingly having fallen out of favour with Gareth Southgate, but should Eddie Howe be thinking along the same lines?
Pope was absolutely phenomenal last season, and other than the crazy sending-off that caused him to be unavailable for the Carabao Cup final, the £10 million signing from Burnley barely put a foot wrong all season.
However, things haven't gone so well this season with the 31-year-old making some rash decisions that have cost us. It's no secret that Pope isn't the best with the ball at his feet, and he does seem prone to rushing off his line and putting his defence into trouble.
Add that to his 'Hokey Cokey' from a corner and odd decision to punch a cross clear on Saturday, both of which led to goals, then we have to wonder what's going on inside his head at the minute.
Meanwhile, Aaron Ramsdale, who was equally brilliant for Arsenal last season, finds himself playing second fiddle to David Raya after he arrived at Arsenal from Brentford this summer.
Ramsdale knows that if he wants to stay in Southgate's thoughts he needs to be playing football and with that in mind is looking to leave North London.
It was thought that Mikel Arteta would resist any approaches for Ramsdale but now Football Insider claim that he could be willing to offload the England stopper in the summer.
If that's the case then Eddie Howe should be all over that.
We have nothing against Pope, but we don't feel he's being pushed enough by MartinDúbravka and that could be leading to his mistakes as he knows that starting place is guaranteed week-on-week.
Were Ramsdale to come in, we already know he's not happy playing second fiddle and he would be competing every day with Pope which can only be good for both of them.
The difficulty will be convincing Ramsdale that he'll get more game time ahead of Pope than he would Raya.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -9 | 16 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Wolves
|
15 | -14 | 10 |
19 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |