The Ramsey Dilemma
Oxford United is calling, but should he hold while Bellamy decides?
“He’ll be a coach and I’m pretty sure that one day, you’ll be speaking to him here”.
The words of Craig Bellamy the day before the international challenge match, friendly, against Ghana when I asked if he felt Aaron Ramsey would go into coaching.
The two men are good friends. Both at the heart of the Gary Speed revolution and of course the heartbreak that came far too soon afterwards.
While Bellamy’s words felt like nice platitudes and an interesting take at the time, those words are currently echoing loud and clear less than a month later.
“A week is a long time in politics” said Harry Wilson, or Prime Minister Harold Wilson as he was more widely known.
In football “a week”, it seems, is an eternity.
I understand that Burnley are still pursuing Craig Bellamy relentlessly, maybe we will see movement in the coming hours, and I’ll point out this is being written on Tuesday 23rd of June.
At the time of Bellamy’s quote he had just spent 37-minutes telling a vastly reduced press pack due to the lack of a World Cup, including myself, that this was his dream job, that he wanted to be the man to lead Wales out in Euro 2028 and that, despite the pay he’d joked, 4 years is about the right life cycle of an international coach.
Ramsey is now heavily linked to Oxford. Indeed my talkSPORT colleague Alex Crook is reporting that a deal has been agreed between the former Cymru captain and the now League One club.
It’s a good job for Ramsey. A club which is well backed financially and in terms of supporter base too, for the third tier of English football. Their main issue is that they’re stuck at the Kassam Stadium, which means that they were unable to build on the somewhat surprising promotion under Des Buckingham in 2024. Crikey, remember when he was the next bright young thing. Then sacked after about 3 months in the Championship. Brutal.
So Oxford might be back where they started but they’re also much further forward.
Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir has increased his shares, he’s just given the leadership team a shake up and brought in people that were working for him at Inter Milan and, most importantly, they have gained during their time in the Championship planning permission for a brand new stadium. Anyone who has visited the ever dilapidating, three stand Kassam Stadium will testify that this is a huge step.
All of which makes an attractive proposition for Aaron. But, and it is a but because we know what playing for Wales means to him, if his country was to come calling would or could he be swayed.
Bellamy, to his credit, had done his hard yards before management. Yes, it was his first managerial role but he’d worked his way up from youth development, coached abroad, been a number two at the sharp end of the Championship and Premier League. He was ready to step into the hot seat.
Ramsey is at the very beginning. No doubt he’s spent time with Craig, learned off managers at his different clubs. The taste he had at Cardiff, scoffed at by Bellamy in the same press conference that I reference above as “that wasn’t a taste. That was helping out”, either way it doesn’t seem to have put him off.
An engaging and thoughtful man who clearly adores his football and sees his future in coaching.
Would a Ramsey and Gunter double act be the antidote to the annoyance of Wales IF Bellamy was to decide Burnley is more appealing than a Nations League and Euro 2028 campaign?
Are the 2016 heroes just a little too inexperienced to be taking those roles right now? Gunter is testing himself with the U19s and we’ll see this month how he gets on in the north Wales based Euros tournament.
Maybe the Oxford job feels the right fit for Aaron to start his journey. Not the heady spotlight that comes with other roles, a realistic “challenger” rather than pressurised favourite for League One.
For what it’s worth, my feeling is that the Wales role will come a little too soon for Aaron if Bellamy decides this week that he’s off.
But, it is a dilemma for Ramsey and sometimes timing is everything in football.
So, let’s see what the next 48 hours or so bring.