Aaron Ramsdale recently revealed on the The Fellas podcast that he was aware of Gabriel Jesus’ move to Arsenal from Manchester City last summer, but was caught off guard by the signing of Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Granit Xhaka and Oleksandr Zinchenko (Photo via Arsenal on Twitter)
Granit Xhaka and Oleksandr Zinchenko (Photo via Arsenal on Twitter)

Ramsdale went on to explain that the public nature of the club’s pursuit of Jesus and an understanding of the type of player that manager Mikel Arteta was looking to recruit had convinced him that the Brazilian would join the team.

Ramsdale told the pod, “It depends how much really, it depends on how well documented the transfer is. Gabriel Jesus basically, I knew 85-90 per cent he was coming to us. That’s just the case of social media doing its thing and kind of knowing the type of person the manager wants.”

Jesus signed with Arsenal at the start of July for a fee of £45million, addressing the team’s need for attacking reinforcements following the departures of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

However, the arrival of Zinchenko took Ramsdale by surprise, with the Ukrainian leaving Manchester City’s pre-season training camp to complete a £32million switch just two weeks after Jesus.

Ramsdale said, “Zinchenko on the other hand, out of the blue. That gathered speed in about four days, it was literally like “Arsenal are interested in Man City star Zinchenko” from someone on Twitter, thought nothing of it, you hear all sorts. Two days later the deal is agreed, three days later he was meeting the team.”

Despite being caught off guard by Zinchenko’s signing, both Jesus and Zinchenko have played important roles in the Gunners’ outstanding first half of the Premier League season.

Arteta’s team currently sits at the top of the Premier League table, five points ahead of Manchester City, and the two teams will also meet in the FA Cup on Friday.

Arteta has also highlighted Zinchenko’s mentality as being crucial to helping his team this season.

He added, “He’s a player that gives us everything we want in that position, and gives us versatility.

“He gets a lot of attention as well and fills a lot of spaces, and that for us is really important.

“I would especially highlight his mentality; what he has brought is a real desire to win and make something special with this team, and the experiences that he’s had in the past are very helpful for us to do that.”