The 22-year-old has matured into a match-winner
of stunning consistency and style with the Gunners
this season, and few would bet against him
tormenting his former club on Saturday
Everyone close to Aaron Ramsey will tell you that
six years in the lucrative and ruthless world of
professional football have not changed the polite,
unassuming boy from Caerphilly.
A boy who once charmed and dazzled all who
came across him with outstanding skill in almost
every sport at school, from gymnastics to shot put,
before throwing in his lot with Cardiff City’s youth
academy.
But Malky Mackay knows it would be foolish to
approach Saturday’s Premier League clash with
Arsenal under the illusion that Ramsey is anything
other than a changed man.
"He [Ramsey] has really come to the fore this
season," the Scot told reporters on Friday. "It has
probably surprised some people, even inside
Arsenal, in terms of the way he has grasped the
game.
"It's good to see a young British player grasping
the nettle at Premier League level and actually
being one of the main men at Arsenal. He is a fine
young man. I met him a couple of weeks ago when
the Welsh squad were here.
He popped in and at
that point I said to him to make sure that in a
couple of weeks' time he goes easy with us!
"Sometimes maturity and experience comes at
different parts of your career, but the biggest factor
as far as he is concerned is the number of games
he is getting on a consistent basis and he is
beginning to show for club and country what a top
young talent he is."
In the five years since Ramsey first left the south of
Wales, returns to his first club have marked key
twists and turns in a short career which has taken
a rollercoaster path.
First, there was an underwhelming individual
display in a goalless FA Cup fourth round draw at
the now-defunct Ninian Park in January 2009
which saw him replaced by Abou Diaby after 59
minutes and highlighted the unpolished nature of
Arsenal’s latest gem.
Then, two years later, came a short but sweet loan
spell in which he set up Craig Bellamy for the
winner in the Welsh derby against Swansea City
and scored himself in a 2-0 win over Leicester
City.
The promise of the latter was significant and
reassuring, coming barely 11 months after the
devastating leg break against Stoke City which still
looms large in the collective memory and which,
for a long time, many feared might define him. But
Arsene Wenger, blessed with superior foresight and
unshakable faith, never shared such concerns.
"There is a basic rule in the game that if you have
a big injury before the age of 20 you come back
and redevelop completely normally," the
Frenchman told reporters in September, at the end
of a week in which Ramsey had proved the match-
winner against Sunderland and Marseille.
"I was not too worried but you never know how
deep the impact is psychologically. He had a little
resistance to go into the fights for a long, long
time - but now he is over it."
Over it he certainly appears - both mentally and
physically - and the truly remarkable thing about
Ramsey’s revival is that it is startlingly obvious in
so many different areas.
Goals and assists – often stylish and crucial ones
– have won over a sceptical Gunners faithful and
garnered wider recognition, but only Lucas Leiva of
Liverpool makes more tackles per game in the
Premier League this season, while Ramsey also
ranks highly in terms of completed dribbles and
distance covered.
He may have idolised Zinedine
Zidane since youth, but the all-round nature of the
22-year-old’s growing contribution to this Arsenal
team is more akin to Patrick Vieira.
Such comparisons are high praise indeed, but also
merely a consequence of the level at which
Ramsey is now operating. With every new
sensational performance in an Arsenal side riding
the crest of a wave the feeling grows that, despite
Gareth Bale’s summer departure, the Premier
League will be privileged to spend another season
in awe of a brilliant young Welshman.
Ramsey has also emerged as a leader on the pitch
within the British core of players Wenger tied down
to new long-term contracts last December as he
looks, finally, to realise his next great side. The
22-year-old’s prominence this season is such that
Jack Wilshere, resident golden boy for club and
country, has been shunted wide and told to look to
his team-mate for inspiration.
Yet personal progress will not be the only reason
why this particular return is significant for Ramsey.
Cardiff are now a Premier League club – albeit a
highly dysfunctional one – with an impressive new
stadium, considerable spending power and
reasonable grounds to hope they will not
immediately have to surrender the next jewel to
emerge from their youth ranks to a bigger kid in
the playground.
The returning star will be granted a warm welcome
but, having already taken points off both
Manchester giants this season, Mackay would be
delighted to discover on Saturday that Ramsey’s
excellence is of a kind that can be brought to a
shuddering halt by good tactical planning and
spirited execution.
The evidence of recent weeks and months,
however, suggests otherwise.
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