If we were to reflect and assess Aaron Ramsey’s return to Cardiff, in all honesty, it panned out exactly as most people feared and expected it would. There were highlights, but the overriding feeling was that of frustration and disappointment.
Having said that, I was there at Leicester when just before half-time, with Cardiff trailing, he took the game by the scruff of the neck. Opening his body up, he cut across the ball to send it into the top corner, before sprinting the full length of the pitch to celebrate with the travelling fans, who spent the break bewildered by what they had just seen. It is comfortably one of my favourite ever Cardiff memories.
Another was scoring a decisive penalty to down Swansea a few weeks later. Little did we know at the time, but Ramsey had already peaked and it was only mid-September. Erol Bulut, keen to excel in his new job and maximise his best player, saw Ramsey play an increasing number of minutes, culminating in the South Wales derby where he scored in the 85th minute and hobbled off in injury time. He was playing too much football and never again found the same sustained level of form and fitness.
Embed from Getty ImagesI guess these things depend on how you view and process football. The move ultimately never made financial sense, but it was a bold, romantic signing that hit us all in the feels. If football is about glory, and it should be, then you should always make that signing, given the chance. Otherwise, what’s the point of any of it?
I also feel, in a broader sense, it’s long overdue that we reassess how we view injured players. What is a largely inevitable occupational hazard tends to be something to mock or the punchline to a joke, when in fact it’s a tragedy and deserves our sympathy, rather than scorn. Injured players do not retreat to the beach, they spend long, painful hours in the gym, rehabilitating on their own, unable to do the thing that they love. They’re not taking the piss and stealing a living, they’re suffering, in every sense.
Ramsey was not offered a playing contract in the summer, whether that was a financial decision, understandably based on the fact that he was coming off a season where he only managed 128 league minutes and 684 in total across his two-year deal or due to him being unwilling to play in the third tier. Ramsey’s move to Mexico appeared to make little sense when you consider that one of the primary reasons behind his return was to be closer to his family, but his agent also represents the Pumas’ current manager, so there was an existing link.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt also serves to highlight how desperate he is to play in the World Cup next summer, should Wales qualify. When Ramsey stepped up to take charge for the final few games of last season, it felt like he was about to write another chapter in his Cardiff story, but players are a long time retired and he made no secret of his goal to continue playing, despite enduring speculation suggesting otherwise.
It felt like the Cardiff job was his if he wanted it and despite what would have been another rookie manager promoted from within, it remained an enticing option, for a number of reasons. Firstly, he would have been the first Cardiff manager since Neil Warnock where the club needed him more than he needed the club. That switch in the power dynamic and his standing within the club would have given Ramsey more leverage than any other manager they could have hired.
You also get the impression that Ramsey wouldn’t have accepted the position in its current guise. Having played most of his career at Arsenal and Juventus, two of the biggest clubs in the world, accustomed to expertise and the best of everything, he would have expected and fought for a stronger, more professional set-up and may have been an agent of change at the club, which we all know is what is desperately needed more than anything else.
Embed from Getty ImagesYou could see the potential during his few games in charge and while the stars did not align this time, I have no doubt that he will inherit the role eventually.
Cardiff have a tendency to circle back to candidates they have pursued in the past, which was the case with Bulut and Brian Barry-Murphy. If Gareth Bale’s consortium were to take control of the club, his return may even be accelerated. Management aspirations aside, I have always thought that Ramsey would be an ideal director of football for the club, should they ever decide to introduce such a role.
Ramsey’s immediate future lies in Mexico and hopefully he finds fitness and form there. His Cardiff story does not yet have its conclusion though, of that I’m sure. He even said as much in his social media post addressing his departure and I don’t think it was just an empty gesture. “Until next time.”