Please don't expect the Ramsey of old

CHASETOWN’S part-time players couldn’t help but feel disappointed when the teamsheet landed an hour before their historic FA Cup clash with Cardiff City in 2008.

- Chris Dunlavy

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, the Bluebirds’ star player, was on the bench. Robbie Fowler hadn’t even boarded the coach.

But when the deflation subsided, the eighth-tier minnows spotted an opportunity. Playing in midfield for the Championship side was a 17-year-old making his first professional start.

“Aaron Ramsey was the one we picked as the one we could get at,” recalled Danny Smith, who had scored a dramatic winner in the previous round against Port Vale.

“We thought, ‘He’s 17, he’s playing in the centre of the park on a muddy pitch at Chasetown, he’s being linked to all these top clubs but he’s not going to know what’s hit him’.”

The problem - for Chasetown, at least - was that nobody could hit him. Ramsey scored one, made one, and played with an assurance that made a mockery of his tender years. “We couldn’t get anywhere near him,” laughed Smith. “He absolutely ran the show.”

Like Smith, I left the Scholars Ground that icy January evening in no doubt that Ramsey was destined for the top. His touch and technique was a class apart.

Fifteen years on, those qualities are undiminished. After a decade at Arsenal, 82 caps for Wales and stints at Juventus, Rangers and Nice, Ramsey remains an accomplished mezzala.