The summary courtesy of Sport1
If Aaron Ramsay wins, everyone will think someone famous is going to die. This “curse”, which stuck to the name of the 31-year-old midfielder of Nice, became the thing most associated with the Welshman. This internet trend started in the early days of Twitter, when Ramsey was still in his debut season at Arsenal, and has continued to this day.
Hard to blame the network. This is a harmless trend in the end and Ramsey himself may also benefit, because each of his goals gets more exposure than normal goals. The list of celebrities who died near its gates is particularly impressive, from Osama bin Laden through Paul Walker to David Bowie, Whitney Houston, Roger Moore and Olivia Newton John.
The curse itself and the attitude towards curses in modern football is fascinating, but no less so Ramsey himself. The Welshman was a key part of Arsenal at a young age, making no less than 262 appearances in the Premier League and after that he was also significant at Juventus. He led Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 alongside Gareth Bale and was twice named Arsenal’s player of the season.
Ramsey suffered from many injuries throughout his career, but for years was a link on a significant scale in world football. He managed to play in several positions in the midfield and was very important in Arsenal, not bad at all, but last summer he found himself expelled from Juventus and signed with Nice, a small team in France, on a free transfer. This move says quite a bit about both him and the French.
It’s easy to forget, given all the injuries and jokes, but Aaron Ramsey used to be a really good player. He also managed to play as a number 8 midfielder who is significant in defense and attack, also as a number 10 in Wales alongside Bale and be significant in everything related to moving the ball.
He rarely made mistakes, was accurate in 85% of his passes and finished the season with 7 goals and 8 assists. Driving the ball in the central third of the field and creating situations made him a significant link in a small team, and at the same time one who can help create threats on the goal.
The biggest problem for Ramsey, who was considered a talent in his early years at Arsenal (and was named the team’s player of the season at the age of 24, in the season he played alongside Mesut Ozil), was his health.
Nagging and recurring hamstring injuries plagued Ramsey and led to him not being able to stay in the lineup for long. There was no doubt about his ability as a healthy player, but he was unable to maintain a place in the lineup for long. Even if he was healthy, he just wasn’t fit enough.
That’s why Arsenal was ready to give him up for Juventus. The move to a less physical league than the Premier League was supposed to do Ramsey good, and he received a salary of £400,000 a week from the Bianconeri, but even there he struggled to make a mark.
Ramsey arrived at Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juve and became a team player, but struggled to stay healthy for long. He even addressed it himself: “I feel good, but these small injuries prevent me from playing. My number of minutes was low, I’m used to having a whole team around me,” he said.
Even at Juventus, he simply couldn’t stay fit for long, and found himself in a less significant role in the attack. He scored only 6 goals in 70 appearances at Juventus, a team that struggled and changed coaches at a serial rate. Some of them, Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo, did not suit the style of play in which Ramsey thrives.
The combination between changing the position, from a free number 8 to a more defensive position or to the left position in 4:4:2. As they wrote in Athletic, “it felt as if no one at the club had seen him before the signing.”
In the last season he was loaned to Rangers, and then he was released from Juventus by mutual consent with the team even though he had a contract for another year. As a free agent and after years of suffering a devaluation of his status, Ramsey found himself in Nice.
Ramsey’s move to Nice is interesting for both sides. In the case of Ramsey himself, it is a cut in salary compared to the sums he received at Juve but with the opportunity to remain in the top of Europe in the form of the French league.
Nice thinks high. Jim Ratcliffe, the owner, is the richest man in Britain and is targeting European football. His Nice jumped from ninth place in 2020/21 to fifth place in 2021/22 and aims for the Champions League this year as well, despite the slow start to the season in the league and in Europe.
He spared no resources. Christophe Galtier was appointed coach of Nice last season, before coming from there to Paris Saint-Germain. The team invested huge sums and also signed Kasper Schmeichel from Leicester (and Nicolas Pepe who is expected to go on loan from Arsenal) in an attempt to become a significant force in Europe.
This project, along with the allure of the French Riviera, made Nice an attractive destination for Ramsey. He scored within a minute in his debut in the league and started for the first time in the lineup in Bloomfield, against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Lucian Fabre, his coach, found an immediate connection with Ramsey: “He became famous for his goals and that’s what he does. He behaves in a great way and has a positive influence with the help of experience, he’s a leader already and really impresses me.” Ramsey joins the youth team of Nice, and it may be that there he found his place.
On the one hand, Ramsey should be in a more free role in Nice, and not as a complementary player. He is perhaps Fabre’s most talented midfielder and as such plays a relatively forward role, giving him the freedom to do as he pleases on the pitch.
It could also be significant in the return match against Nice. Maccabi Tel Aviv comes into the game with a 0:1 advantage, but is playing against a stubborn opponent and a player who will make life difficult for the back link of the yellows.
On the other hand, Ramsey’s health is still in question. He is expected to play against Maccabi Tel Aviv, but he also dealt with an injury at the beginning of the season in France and has not yet started in the lineup. He could be particularly significant in the World Cup, where Wales will play at the home of the United States, England and Iran and can advance to the round of 16, and possibly also in the French league where Nice is aiming To screw up a place in the Champions League. When he plays he can be one of the best on the pitch. The problem, in his case, is that it is never taken for granted.