Arsenal boss must take blame for Ramsey injury

When the Arsenal and Wales star Aaron Ramsey had to be taken off early in the second half of the Champions League victory over Bayern Munich, we were all hoping for the best but fearing the worst. Now we find out that the injury is somewhere in the middle, with the midfielder due back in about a month, but also that it could probably have been avoided.

One man who would have been cursing his luck more than most was Arsene Wenger, but it turns out that the Arsenal boss was aware that Ramsey had been playing too much and could have done with a rest at some point. Initially he put the blame on Wales and suggested that they should not have played Ramsey or Gareth Bale in the final Euro qualifier against Andorra because the Welsh were already through.

Wenger has tempered that accusation, as reported by ESPN, and accepted that some of the fault lies at his own feet but he still thinks that Wales were the main culprits.

The manager said, “Aaron Ramsey, after international break, he has a chance to be back, so it is a three to four-week job.

“Maybe he was overloaded a little bit with games. Ideally I think neither him nor Bale should have played against Andorra, because they were qualified, but unfortunately I could not decide that.

“I was in a position after that where I thought I could rest him against Watford. In the end I didn’t do it and of course after, against Bayern, I had not much choice and we got punished.

“Ideally he should have had a breather at Watford. Realistically, the real breather he could have had was against Andorra.”

Come on Arsene, be fair. If he thought that Ramsey needed a rest against Andorra but didn´t get it, why not rest him against Watford? Ramsey was not injured and I´m sure he wanted to play for his country and celebrate their historic qualification. Maybe he shouldn´t have but once he did then the responsibility for looking after him was back on Wenger and Arsenal, no one else.

Stop trying to pass the buck. It´s not as if we don´t have form for doing this sort of thing is it?