All Football

Which Premier League club best suits a young starlet? That?s the question on the mind of the newest kid on the block in the UK. Oliver Petersen investigates…
Everton have joined Manchester United and Arsenal in tabling £5million bids for Cardiff?s teenage protégé Aaron Ramsey.

Liverpool are also in the running for the 17-year-old midfield sensation, and the Welsh club await the valuation to be matched.

The wonderkid was a substitute in last month?s FA Cup final and is widely expected to move any day now.


The five-foot-ten midfield maestro is a player comfortable in possession of the football, happy to make a team tick, and able to trouble opponents with his dribbling, passing, touch and poise.

In April 2007, he became Cardiff?s youngest ever player, aged 16 years and 124 days, beating John Toshack?s record, and the following season made his first start for Cardiff, in the FA Cup, giving a special performance to earn the competition?s player of the round award. Then, in May he was called up to Wales? full squad for the friendlies versus Iceland and the Netherlands.

His talent is raw and he is by no means the finished article, but he?s offered enough to suggest that he has the potential to go right to the top.

And top Premier League managers are queuing up to be the one to guide him there.

What goes through the mind of a young player making such a decision? One of the key components must be which players at the prospective clubs would he learn his trade off?

Of the four who have reportedly expressed interest in his signature, Everton - the only team outside the ?big four? and the option with the smallest squad - are naturally the team where he could expect most opportunities in the first team. Tim Cahill could teach Ramsey a thing or two about breaking into the box late, timing his runs, adding goals to his game, and aerial prowess. David Moyes - despite eventual criticism - handled similarly talented and precocious youngster, Wayne Rooney, well enough for him to eventually go on to do bigger and better things for club and country, and would be a good man for Ramsey to work for.

However, it?s been said that Ramsey is an Arsenal-style player, who is comfortable receiving possession in tight spaces and enjoys a one-an-two-touch pass-and-move style of football, which can?t have gone unnoticed by Arsene Wenger. The Frenchman has reportedly tabled a big which has been accepted. How about on the playing front? Surely wily old Cesc Fabregas, now 21, could pass on a tip or two about how to run the show from the centre of the park, couldn?t he?

And yet the Wales Under-21 international will have trouble turning down either of England?s two biggest clubs.

At Liverpool, he?d learn his trade from Steven Gerrard, currently England?s finest exponent of midfield play. He could fine-tuning his all-round game off the club captain, while improving his passing with the help of Spaniard Xabi Alonso, and his tackling under the guidance of Argentine Javier Mascherano.

And at Manchester United, the Bluebirds? star of tomorrow would have Paul Scholes to look up to and take advice from - someone who has been at the top of his profession for a decade. Meanwhile Michael Carrick would show him the ropes in how to walk through a game passing off either foot, while looking like little energy was being expended!

Owen Hargreaves could teach him a thing or two about tactical play and plotting one?s way through a midfield battle through a combination of tactical astuteness and tenacity.

And yet, some reports suggest Ramsey would immediately be shipped back to Cardiff on loan, should United grab him, to allow him another year of first team football. So perhaps he?d have to wait for his chance to learn of United?s midfield marvels.

Either way, it?s a luxurious array of options he has to cut his teeth into in order to decide.

Wales? Brian Flynn, who runs the Welsh age group teams, has described Ramsey as ?sensational? and labelled him a ?special talent.?

Where will that talent see his future lie? All will be revealed very soon. The Premiership awaits with baited breath.

Oliver Petersen

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