Unai Emery is confident Aaron Ramsey’s performance levels will not be affected by the breakdown of his contract talks. The Wales midfielder has been at the Emirates for 10 years and appeared to be close to reaching an agreement on a new four-year deal only for the club to walk away from the negotiating table.
The suspicion has been that they do not want to push the boat out for Ramsey, whose current contract expires next summer, because they have other options in central midfield.
Emery made Ramsey one of his five captains before the start of the season, when he made it clear he wanted the 27-year-old to extend and commit the prime of his career to the club. That wish has not changed. But Emery also appeared to suggest he understood every player had to maximise his earning potential during what is a short career.
“I don’t think the situation will affect his performances,” the manager said. “I just want to give him and the players the most stability so that they can be focused only on the games. I spoke about this situation [about him wanting Ramsey to extend] in the pre-season and now it is the same.
“I have known and I’m going to know this same situation again because the football career for a player is very short. They are professionals for 10, 12 or 15 years but not more and they need to take the best performance and also work very hard in these years for their future and their family’s future.”
Emery’s team face Watford at home on Saturday, having won six games in succession, four of them in the Premier League which has seen them recover impressively from losing the first two matches under Emery to Manchester City and Chelsea in August. In the opposite dugout will be Javi Gracia, alongside whom Emery played for one season in 1995-96 at Real Sociedad.