So the 2010/2011 season has yet again provided the familiar feeling of failure and misery inflicted by Arsenal’s underachievement. On occasions like this it’s difficult to discover any positive points to pick up on, yet as the old saying goes “every cloud has a silver lining”. The silver lightning from this somewhat disastrous season is the re-emergence of a certain Aaron Ramsey.
Having beaten United to Ramsey’s signature on 13th of June 2008, Wenger unearthed yet another special young talent through trading £5 million with Cardiff City for the Welshman’s services. Le Boss ensured that he captured a player who could provide a sense of versatility through being a box-to-box midfielder with a creative edge and could also play as a winger and at fullback. Upon his signature, Wenger described Ramsey “an all-round player, with a fantastic ability to cover distances”.
Ramsey’s first season produced some encouraging moments and he was unleashed into a baptism of fire through being selected in the starting 11 for the Champions League Third Qualifying Round against FC Twente on 13 August 2008. He went on to make 22 appearances and create 3 assists for the rest of the season and scored one goal with a strike away at Fenerbache in the CL. Ramsey continued to improve during the following season (2009/2010) through making 29 appearances and chipping in 3 goals in the process before his season was prematurely ended on that fateful day at the Britannia Stadium.
The severe impact of the leg break revived painful memories of the previous similar injuries suffered by Eduardo and Diaby, and signalled the fears of a damaging future career before it barely began for the young Welshman. However Ramsey’s level of determination is second to none and any Cardiff City fan will correctly point out that this guy is a warrior and never gives up. This is the sort of determination that enabled Ramsey to start walking without his crutches only 3 weeks following that horror tackle by Shawcross.
After a summer of rehabilitation he was welcomed back to training last October and returned to action with a positive 45 minute reserve appearance against Wolves a month later. Such was his desire to get back into the thick of first team action; he subsequently spent a loan spell at Nottingham Forest and more significantly at his former club Cardiff City.
Although his appearances at Forest was were restricted due to the Mammoth snowy conditions which ultimately led to several of the club’s matches being postponed, Ramsey’s quality performances at Cardiff provided some evidence to suggest that he had re-discovered the encouraging form he possessed prior to his injury.
While his return to the Arsenal first team has provided some mixture of performance ratings, the way he played against United was superb. Having being recalled to the side in place of the injured Cesc, Ramsey produced an immaculate performance which involved scoring the match winning goal and reminded a few people of possible things to come. It must be stressed that had it not been for the horrific leg break, Ramsey would likely to have nailed down a regular first team spot in the middle of the park alongside Cesc a long while ago.
It now thus seem ironic that Ramsey is line to permanently replace the Spaniard (should Barca’s persistent flirtations prove successful) to form a potentially formidable partnership with the very man who claimed his original first team spot, Jack Wilshere. Granted that Cesc leaving would be a substantial blow, but make no mistake that Ramsey has all the attributes to become more than an able replacement for the current captain.
Not only does he have all the skills to match the Spaniard, he also holds a real sense of leadership which he has already proved with the Welsh National team and potentially holds the key to become a potential long term future captain for Arsenal. A good pre-season will go a long way to ensure that we’ll have a world class player in Ramsey next year which will feel like, as Le Boss would usually say, “a new signing”.
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