Aaron Ramsey’s agent, David Baldwin, is pushing him not to sign a new deal with the club, and to leave on a free transfer when his contract expires instead.

According to rumours on social media, the agent thinks Ramsey could possibly get a move to the likes of Barcelona if he bides his time. As a result, Arsenal are having very little success convincing the 27-year-old to stay.

The one thing the club doesn’t want is another long drawn-out contract saga, and that’s exactly what they seem to be heading for.

This season, Arsenal had to deal with Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez stalling on new deals and running their contracts down. In the end, Sanchez got a move to Manchester United and Özil got a major new contract. Essentially, they’ve laid out the blueprint for how to use the club to get a move or more money.

Anyone who watched Barcelona play without Lionel Messi on Sunday will know the club could do with reinforcements. They put in a pretty terrible performance and were lucky not to lose by more than 5-4 to Levante. It’s not entirely unrealistic that they might consider a move for an in form Ramsey.

Hopefully, the agent is just playing hardball, and they’ll sign a new deal if they get an acceptable offer. The identity of the next manager and the next club captain will probably also play a part. We’ll see if that ends up being the case.