Paul Merson raging with Arsenal over criminal double mistake

Paul Merson has hit out at Arsenal’s board for the two major mistakes he believes leaves the club 20 years away from challenging for the Premier League title.

The Sky Sports pundit and former Gunners star is raging with Arsenal for allowing star midfielder Aaron Ramsey to run down his contract at the club, describing the failure to tie down the Welshman as “a football crime”.

The former Cardiff star falls out of contract at the end of the season after 18 months of talks failed to secure a positive outcome and is now widely tipped to secure a move to Juventus before the end of the January transfer window.

And the failure to tie the player down and see a prized asset walk away for a small fee has left Merson angry.

“Letting Ramsey leave is just bad, bad club management isn’t it,” an unhappy Merson told Sky Sports.

“To let player contracts run out in this day and age for how much these players go for and how much they’re worth is criminal.

“To let him leave the club and walk away for free, somebody in his prime leaving for nothing, it’s a football crime.”

Merson believes Arsenal’s decision to hand Mesut Ozil a huge £350,000 a week deal last year is largely to blame – and he is also unhappy with the club for that decision which, he believes, has created a rod for their own back.

“Now they have got to replace him and that will cost money but until the Ozil problem gets sorted out they are going to find it difficult to bring in players.

“Because if they bid £50-60million for someone, the first thing the player will say is well I want what Ozil is getting.

“And when the club says you aren’t getting that then the player will just say well I’m not coming then. And that is what happened with Ramsey.”

Asked how close the club are to challenging for a Premier League title, Merson responded: “What do you think? 20 years.

“They’re a million miles away at the moment and the way it is going right now they probably need seven players to compete.”