Why Ramsey is not Cesc and why Rosicky still has a future with us. « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month

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Publication on July 20th: Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football.

The book that re-writes the Arsenal story.

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By Walter Broeckx

Continuing our review of Arsenal players and positions, we move up further and see what we have on the attacking midfield place.

The open gap that the departure of Cesc gave us. One could say that we didn’t have another player like Cesc available last season. He was world class and well they don’t grow on trees so finding another one with his quality is not that easy.

We could have one ourselves in Jack Wilshere but well we know he was out injured all season. Now even when fit he never would have filled the Cesc gap on his own. Talent enough but too young. Don’t forget when Cesc was his age he wasn’t as dominant as he was in the last two seasons.

If all goes well Jack should be back somewhere in September but we have to be careful with him and don’t overplay him. So I wouldn’t rely on him that much for the coming season. Handle him with care please and for the moaners: please give the boy the time to work his way back. It can take a full year so let us not moan after a first bad game.

For the rest one could say we had two other players who took that place last season. Ramsey and Rosicky. Ramsey started 27 games and Rosicky 19 games. Ramsey was present at the start of the season and then fell back. Rosicky was coming back to his best level in the second part of the season.

Both have one critical thing: they don’t score enough goals. Rosicky never was a high scoring midfielder but still only one goal in the PL in 19 starts is not that good. But it was a golden goal that we all remember and feel warm about.

But a player in his position should score a few more goals.  The strong points for Rosicky is that he works hard and his twisting and turning, changing direction and speed. At 31 after two lost seasons he says he is only 29 as a footballer but well we have to take in account that he will not be able to be fit and influential for an entire season.

Ramsey is a player (and I forecast that there could be a hot debate about him below this article) that divides the opinions. It seems that a part of the fans have elected him to be our boo boy last season. I just wonder if this was some part of misplaced anger aimed at him for all the wrong reasons. Let me explain.

Cesc left us and left the fans behind who were angry, disappointed. Well we all know how we felt. Even if we could partly understand he wanted to go home to grand dad we still were bitterly disappointed.  And I think a part of the fan base took it on the player who came in to take his place. And this was Ramsey in the first place. The tragic thing is that Ramsey was starting at Arsenal again for the first season after his terrible leg break. And he was first of all trying to get on with the speed of the game (at first it was all right), the duels, the intensity.

But people expected him just to be another Cesc. Cesc, as I have said a world class player at his age but Ramsey is 21 years old now and lost almost 2 full seasons because of his injury. So a football  age of 19 one could say. And then we have to compare him with the Cesc of 19. And we have forgotten but Cesc at 19 was nowhere the Cesc when being 22. Cesc at 19 had to grow and learn a lot. Brilliant at times but also a lot of lost balls, missed chances, over doing it…

So when Ramsey didn’t perform at the highest Cesc-level the fickle part of the Arsenal supporters took him as the victim after Eboue had left us. They didn’t give him any time to grow. The first bad game and out came the booooos and the bad words on twitter and even hoping for another broken leg and terrible diseases. Maybe that fickle part was just angry at Cesc but as he was out of reach they chose the player that replaced him as their target to be angry at?

Maybe Cesc was partly to blame for the high expectations of those boo-boys. Because it was Cesc himself who said, shortly before Shawcross came along, that Ramsey at his age was better than he had been at the same age. And that he had to play to his best to keep Ramsey behind him. That were nice words from Cesc that showed that Ramsey had a great future ahead at that time. But it also maybe put extra weight on Ramsey his shoulders and more expectations by the supporters.

And after the first ups and downs early in the season Ramsey found his feet and was very much involved in the team that gave us the first good run in the season. But then came for him maybe a big shock at the end of November. The death of the Gary Speed seemed to have a big impact. After all it was Gary Speed who made him captain of Wales at the age of 20. Gary Speed himself a midfielder in his playing days certainly believed in Ramsey. So the sudden death and the way he died was something that could have weighed on young Aaron. And it seemed to have affected him and his game.

But alongside Speed, Wenger also believes in Ramsey. Are they wrong, and are the boo boys right? History has shown that most of the time Wenger is right in seeing the potential from a player.  But with some fans not wanting to give Ramsey the time to develop it could be doubly hard for Ramsey to overcome a dip in form.

So what to expect for the coming season? I think Rosicky will play a substantial part of the games but with his age it will not be a surprise that he will have to sit on the bench every now and then. And the big question will be (for both players in fact): will Ramsey make the final step up the ladder? If Ramsey makes a flying start to the season I think we will see him a lot at first with Rosicky sitting on the bench. If Ramsey has a more hesitant start we will see more of Rosicky at the start and Ramsey coming in later in the game.

The most important thing for Ramsey is not feel forced to score (as Cesc felt at some stage in his early days). Just focus on letting others score first. And after a while the confidence for that assist will lift him and make him more relaxed and it will lead to him scoring more goals himself. This season could be a major step in his career. If he could end up with double numbers in goals and assists he will be almost there. But please let us not get on his back from the first misplaced ball. Wouldn’t it be a shame to drive him out and see him flourish at one of our rivals in a few years time?

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