Ramsey Must Not Go

I don’t think Ramsey should go at all and I think any Arsenal fan that calls him shit or says he should never play for the club again are morons. The ones that were sending him death threats should throw themselves under a bus.

I’m not here to make excuses per sé for Ramsey’s poor form and he has been poor but he is not a shit player and he is part of the future of the Arsenal midfield. This is a young man who broke his leg playing for Arsenal, at a time when he was hitting form and becoming really influential.

Ramsey is a fantastic little player with a great future ahead of him but he is a victim of circumstance. It just so happens that one of the brightest young talents in British football is playing for a club where at 21 he is being considered and treated by the fans as a senior player.  Every mistake he makes is being scrutinised and damned.

If a player plays badly then he can be rightly criticised but what some Arsenal “fans” are doing to players like Theo and Ramsey goes beyond that. They are still young players and have had their development stunted by the pressure they’ve had to deal with from a young age. When Cesc broke into the first team he was, and I quote Wenger, just one young player (in a team of invincibles). Aaron, and Jack, and Alex are all young players in a team of other young players.

Our first team is very young which makes our reserve team very young and our youth team are but foetuses. I personally believe that our willingness to play so many young players in the reserves and first team at such young ages is counter-productive but that is for another day.

Back to Aaron. Rambo is a young player who had a career threatening injury whilst he was still developing now that isn’t an excuse for his poor form but it is a contributing factor. The age at which he sustained this injury stunted his development. Not his technical development but his physical development. At a time when he is supposed to be building strength and adapting his body to the rigours of professional football and increasing his game stamina and season stamina he was at home with his leg in plaster.

It is quite clear that Ramsey is fatigued and this is probably the reason why he went off the boil in the first place but for me the main reason is the fans. Rambo hasn’t had as many knockbacks in his young career as Theo has had (although Aaron’s injury was bigger it was just one incident). Theo was taken to a world cup as the great new hope and didn’t get a game, he then has 3 years of niggling shoulder and ankle injuries and was then snubbed for the last world cup. All before his 22nd birthday. Not to mention the 5+ years of the media slagging him off as not having a football brain and no final ball despite his many assists and respectable goal tally. Theo has bounced back every time and when the fans started on him 6 months ago he tried to play through it and get them back on side. It took until the Spurs game and his worst 45 minutes in an Arsenal shirt for him to turn it around and produce some of his best performances for Arsenal over the next 6-7 games. When Theo scored his goal you could see the pure relief on his face. He had turned a corner.

Aaron is trying to do the same thing but sadly is actually making things worse for himself. A great example of this was summed up by a tweet I saw last night from someone whom I admire and respect greatly as an Arsenal fan and fellow blogger.

Any midfielder trying a back heel in the left back position should be questioned. We cannot blame poor decision making on a 2 yr old injury

I make him totally right but I want to examine the situation. Why did Rambo do that? Here’s what I think.

I believe that Ramsey is trying to use pretty play, tricks etc to “wow” the fans and get himself some breathing space. When the fans are constantly on your back you want to do something to respond. Ramsey, being such a young man, I believe thinks that the best way to do that is to try and produce something spectacular. He is wrong of course but I sympathise with his situation. He wants to be in the team and needs to be in the team to get his form back but can’t do that with the fans on his back so he tries stupid things to impress them and ends up making the situation worse.

It was quite ironic really to see and hear from and read tweets from fans screaming for him to be taken off and for AOC be brought on. Ramsey had excellent passing stats last night and compared to other performances AOC was for want of a better word rubbish, in fact our entire team bar Rosicky were pretty rubbish last night. The Ox came on and made a few penetrating runs but lost the ball every time. His passing was weak and he didn’t really create anything. Better than Ramsey though? No, not for me, not last night for certain. They are different players who add different things to the team. Ramsey is a ball retainer and AOC is a dribbler. Not really comparable players and I think it is dangerous to keep calling for The Ox because you could see by some of his rather selfish and single-minded runs with the ball last night that he is starting to believe his own hype and thinks he is going to change the game whenever he comes on. He is a great player but like Wenger I urge caution with him and with all of our young players. If Jack is off colour next year will some be slagging him off? If Oxlade-Chamberlain has a dip will people say he is shit too?

Aaron Ramsey is the closest thing we have to Cesc and we should be patience with him and thankful he is an Arsenal player and not a United player which he could have been. He will be lucky to peak at the level Cesc was at when Cesc was 19 but Cesc at 19 was far better than most midfielder’s in Europe.

I admit to calling for players like Chamakh and Squillaci to be sold but they literally offer nothing when they play and they are too old to be patient with and I admit to shouting for players to be taken off for other players and I admit to calling other clubs and their supports classless but what some Arsenal fans have said about Ramsey and in particular to other Gooners (I reference the torrent of verbal abuse aimed at @thegoonerfamily & a few others last night) shows a real lack of class and I am ashamed to be associated with them as an Arsenal fan.

I admit to this not being one of my better blogs but I hope the message gets through to some people. Ramsey deserves a chance and certainly deserves greater support.