Pressure is something Aaron Ramsdale is pretty used to. Having battled relegation with Chesterfield, AFC Wimbledon, Bournemouth and Sheffield United in consecutive seasons he's had his fair share of high-stress situations. However, since moving to Arsenal things have gone up a level.
"You go into games where you’re expected to win rather than needing to win," he says in an interview at a launch party for Arsenal's new away kit. "Although there’s a lot of pressure on those games when you’re fighting relegation, the expectation level is a lot greater at Arsenal and the disappointment if you don’t get the right result is also a lot greater. The expectations and demands here definitely shocked me at the start, but as the season progressed I got used to them and felt OK.
"You don’t realise how big a club is until you get there and how passionate the fans are. The scrutiny, the love and everything that goes with football at a big club is greater because of how many people support you."
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Before he had even kicked a ball for Arsenal that scrutiny boiled over into some unsavoury scenes as abusive comments by social media trolls forced Ramsdale to limit his comments on Instagram. It's safe to say that when he arrived for £24 million from Sheffield United last summer, the signing was not a universally popular one.
Since then though the 24-year-old has gone about quickly proving his doubters wrong and is perhaps now one of the most popular players among the Gunners fan base. For Ramsdale, this connection with the supporters was vital fuel to his unexpectedly excellent performances last season.
"To feel wanted and to feel loved makes me feel eight feet tall," he says. "I’ve been able to have the pressure of them really willing me on and wanting me to do well. Not wanting to let them down allows me to raise my game and my concentration levels. There’s no better feeling as a footballer when you’ve got 50,000 people singing your name."
Ramsdale is now keen to reward the support he has received from the Arsenal fans as much as possible. The club have made great steps to try to match his ambitions this summer in the transfer market by bringing in Marquinhos, Matt Turner, Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko. For Ramsdale, this is what is needed to help the Gunners succeed where they fell short last season.
"It was definitely disappointing not to get fourth with the position we were in," he says reflecting on his debut campaign in North London. "But at the start of the season if someone had offered us fifth place with the team we had, with a lot of new boys who had never played at a massive club like this, then I think we would have snapped their hands off.
"[The club] have a plan of wanting young, hungry players to develop and learn but this year they are bringing in young hungry players who have won as well. That’s invaluable. When you have a young team you need experience and older heads who know how to win through the whole season and throughout the cup competitions. The people we are bringing in are from the same mould as last year, so they have a clear plan and that’s very exciting to see."
For Ramsdale personally, though the goal is to kick on. With a World Cup spot potentially at stake the 24-year-old has no intentions of resting on his laurels and believes he can reach even greater heights in the coming campaign.
"Personally I think it was a good start but there's a lot of things to improve on," he says. "There’s definitely more levels I can go up to."
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