Aaron Ramsey, the name echoing Emirates stadium for a long time now – we if you ask all the Gooners out there this guy is regarded as a LEGEND in North London for his decade long services to Arsenal Football Club. The Welshman arrived as a boy and is leaving London as a man – here is a look back at Aaron’s career a North-London:
16 year old Aaron Ramsey celebrating a Cardiff City goal
On June 13th, 2008 a teenage Aaron Ramsey joined Arsenal for £5M from Cardiff City.
At the time he was merely a prospect, one with budding potential. A large reason why Ramsey signed was because of the boss, Arsene Wenger. In 2007, 16 year old Ramsey became the youngest player to play for Cardiff. He eventually made 22 senior appearances for his local club, including in the 2008 FA Cup final.
Arsenal beats Manchester United, Everton to teen sensation Ramsey
When he joined, his scout report said:
“He is still only 17, but has already shown that he is a very intelligent and mature player with great quality. Although he mainly plays in midfield, Aaron is a versatile player and can also play across the defence.”
On his decision to join, Ramsey himself stated:
“Arsene talked to me for a long time about the club and the plans for the future, which really excites me. Arsenal is a club which always gives young players an opportunity at the highest level of the game and I am going to work my hardest to be part of future successes here. It was a really difficult decision to leave Cardiff City, they are my local club with great supporters and I would just like to thank everyone at Cardiff City for their support and help in my early career.”
Ramsey debuts in a Champions League Qualifier
On August 13th, 2008, Aaron Ramsey made his competitive club debut. It was a Champions League qualifier match at FC Twente, due to a fourth place finish the prior season. Arsenal won the away match 2-0, with second half goals scored by William Gallas and Emmanuel Adebayor. That pretty match secured the tie, as it set up a second leg at home to win 4-0, and 6-0 on aggregate.
The 17-year-old made 22 appearances that season and scored his first club goal in a 5-2 Champions League victory over Galatasaray.
Ramsey enjoyed a good season in 2009/10, posting three Premier League goals, until the evening of February 27th, in a 3-1 victory over Stoke City.
Ramsey suffers gruesome leg break via Stoke City defender Shawcross
It was Stoke who led the match early on, before Nicklas Bendtner responded. Then, in the 69th minute of a tight, 1-1 contest, Ryan Shawcross made a frightening slide into Aaron Ramsey’s leg. It was an ugly sight, and not one that is appropriate for all audiences to see. Ramsey was carted off the field afterward.
There were claims that the tackle was inspired by Tony Pulis’s hatred of Wenger, his rough tactics, or just a clumsy player, but at the end of the day the young man’s leg was shattered and there were questions over whether he’d ever be the same or even play again.
He finally returned after over nine months sidelined from the fracture of both his Tibia and his Fibula, missing matches from February to November 2010.
He was loaned out to Nottingham Forest for a brief stint, playing 11 matches in the Championship and scoring once, before being recalled in March 2011.
He finally returned for Arsenal against West Brom on 19 March, and just over a month later, on the first of May he had an emotional, unforgettable moment. In his first gunners start in thirteen months against none other than Manchester United, Ramsey played the full 90 minutes and scored the only goal of the match in front of a lively, proud Emirates Stadium.
Ramsey scoring the winning goal in his full return against the Red Devils
The following two campaigns were not his best. He still clearly hadn’t recovered from the injury and there was a demoralizing belief that he would never returned to his peak form. He scored in a 2-1 defeat at Spurs and had two goals and four assists (three goals and six assists total) in 2011-12, then two goals had two goals and four assists
total in 2012-13, but his early potential still had not been grasped.
Then, suddenly, his time came.
A seemingly forgotten player at Arsenal, the Welshman turned it on in 2013-14, notching 15 goals and 10 assists between the Premier League and Champions League despite missing over four months. Ramsey scored his first three goals of the season over the course of two legs in a 5-0 aggregate win over Fenerbahçe, sealing a place in the Champions League group stages. His first four Premier League goals came over three matches, all wins over Sunderland, Stoke and Swansea. He soon scored a brilliant, tricky individual goal against Norwich to give himself five goals early on. Just eight matches in, he’d already broken his Premier League goalscoring record.
Ramsey scores an iconic half volley in a 2-0 win over Liverpool, Arsenal move 5 points clear at top of table
Then came “that” goal against Liverpool. “What a wonderful goal, from this Wizard Welshman”– That famous commentary, along with the roaring Emirates atmosphere still rings in the heads of Arsenal fans everywhere. Resulting from that 2-0 victory Arsenal took a 5 point lead in the title race, the closest they have been in years.
Four days later, he scored the only goal in a 1-0 away win against Dortmund, making Arsenal the first English side ever to accomplish such an achievement.
In March of this great season, he signed a long term contract that would keep him at the club until the summer of 2019.
He returned from a four month injury in late March and scored twice against his former club, Cardiff City, notched another against Hull City and finished an outstanding Premier League campaign in style, with a superb volley on the final day against Norwich City.
Ramsey celebrates scoring the winning goal in an FA Cup Final comeback, ending a nine year club trophy drought
On May 17, 2014, Aaron completed a historic Arsenal come back. Down 2-0 within 15 minutes, Arsenal were on the brink of falling short of a trophy yet again. Hull City surprised everyone in their success early on. After a Cazorla free kick and a Koscielny bundle brought Arsenal back level, the match headed to extra time. A Giroud backheel perfectly set up an Aaron Ramsey strike. He met the ball and connected the outside of his foot with it perfectly, put power on it and beat the keeper at his near post. Ramsey wheeled away to celebrate what eventually ended Arsenal’s trophy drought and its first FA Cup in nine years.
The following season, Ramsey’s form continued over by scored the winning goal at the death in the opening Premier League match. A week later, he led a comeback from 2-0 down at Everton to grab a point, scoring Arsenal’s first in the 83rd minute. Later that season, he almost led another famous turnaround, scoring an outstanding volley while 3-0 at the Britannia in Stoke, while unreasonable boos inexplicably rang around the ground due to his severe injury years earlier. Arsenal lost that match 3-2. Just three days later, he scored one of the best goals in Champions League history against Galatasaray in Turkey, a side volley met at ground level from around 35 yards out. At the end of another successful season, he eventually started in the FA Cup final again and won another FA Cup trophy, 4-0 over Aston Villa.
2015-16 was not his most memorable. Although he had no real injury setbacks, his spotlight from before turned to Mesut Ozil, with his near record breaking 19 league assists en route to our closest title challenge in 12 seasons. That was the year of the fox, when the impossible happened and Leicester City won the Premier League title, with the gunners finishing 10 points off in second. Despite it being an “off-season” where he was not mentioned a whole lot, Ramsey still finished the season off with six goals and five assists. He scored and assisted in yet another Arsenal-Liverpool classic which finished 3-3 at Anfield, and he scored a tricky behind the back flick in the biggest North London derby in years. That match finished 2-2 and Arsenal went on to celebrate a surprising “St. Totteringham’s Day” (the unofficial day during the season in which Arsenal clinch a finish above Spurs) on the final day of the season after Tottenham were humiliated 5-1 at Newcastle. Despite him having a quiet season and little media attention, he was still extremely impactful, which shows just what type of player he is.
FA Cup winner 2.0! Moments after an equalizer, Ramsey wheels away as Arsenal retake the lead for good
Fast forward to 2016-17. He now had a fresh start with a new number (8). He had a couple hamstring injuries and a calf injury, leaving him out almost half the season. This would end up being the first time in his Arsenal career that the club failed to reach the top four and thus had to settle for a Europa League spot. Ramsey finally scored his first
goal on a beautiful curler on the final day against Everton, a positive in a negative season. This gave him the confidence to then score yet another FA Cup Final winning goal a week later, against champions Chelsea. He was truly used to being the man of the moment.
Ramsey celebrates a hat trick against Everton during his impressive 2017-18 campaign
Then there was the disaster of last year. Aaron was the glimmer of light in a sea of darkness. While the team’s mentality washed away, Ramsey’s stayed strong. When the players stopped fighting, Ramsey kept on. Ramsey gave his heart and passion into a team and a group of players that didn’t give it back. That was truly admirable, and it deservedly won him his second Arsenal Player of the Year award with 11 goals and 12 assists overall.
Flick maestro! Ramsey coolly finishes off a superb team move en-route to a 5-1 routing of Fulham
This season, despite, limited play time, Ramsey has three goals and six assists in the league, and he’s come alive in big moments once again. Despite knowing he will not resign with Arsenal, and being out favored in the squad, he still leaves it all out on the pitch.
Ramsey points to the ground following a crucial goal in his final match at his beloved Wembley and his final North London Derby– “This is my pitch!”
*I f****** own the pitch* Aaron Ramsey is said to be saying this words after he scored another important goal that will go down in the history books of North London Derby for sure. The Welshman as said earlier had opened the scoring in 1-1 draw that went down to the wire. All being said, Ramsey will be missed by the Emirates as much the same when the Gunners fan will travel to Wembley .
“One day next autumn, when Aaron Ramsey wakes up in his bed in Turin and feels a little bit lonely in a foreign land, he will warm himself with the memory of a goal against Spurs at Wembley.”
Juventus announce their pre-contract agreement with Ramsey, sign him to a four year contract
On February 11th, he officially signed a four year contract with Juventus to make around £400k a week. Whether he deserves that much money or not, his hard work and professionalism has earned him this deal.
It has been one turbulent ride with Aaron Ramsey filled with such wonderful, emotional, memorable moments. He was been so loyal, passionate, creative, skillful, and energetic. He had many moments through his career when times were rough at Arsenal and bigger clubs were swarming in on him. He chose to stay and help Arsenal through its pain. This was mostly clearly shown last season, he stayed with us, and now he’s doing his best to help us back into a Champions League he won’t even be with us for as he moves on in his career. That’s the type of player Aaron Ramsey is. On and off the pitch he has always done the right thing and set such a wonderful example for all of us.
On behalf of Arsenal, we all want to wish him well for the future and thank him for his time here at the club.
