Ramsey his Future:

BBC


Injury issues and World Cup hopes


Ramsey has said he wants to continue playing next season, but that in itself comes with uncertainty.

Ramsey wants to concentrate on playing football so he can play for Wales.

The 34-year-old's Cardiff contract expires this summer and, while the option of another year is written into the deal, he has not yet committed either way.

Matters are complicated by the fact Ramsey is still recovering from a hamstring injury which has kept him out of action for two months and requires further rehabilitation.


By his own admission, Ramsey's return to his boyhood club "hasn't materialised how we wanted" because of a "very frustrating" series of injuries which have severely limited his playing time.

Since rejoining Cardiff in 2023, the midfielder has started only 13 league games plus two in the FA Cup as well as making eight substitute appearances in the Championship.


"He still wants to play," former Wales striker Iwan Roberts told the Feast of Football podcast. "But is his body going to allow him?
"I think this [management] is the natural progression for Aaron with all the injuries he's had for quite a long period."
Although Ramsey is earning nowhere near the amount of money he was on at Arsenal or Juventus, the Bluebirds still had to push the boat out financially to bring him back to the Championship.
In League One, he would almost certainly need to take another pay cut.
According to those who know Ramsey best, he is a homebird who would be reluctant to move his family again towards the end of a career which has already taken him from London to Turin and then Nice, via Glasgow.


One of the main reasons for signing with Cardiff for a third stint was to settle down in south Wales with his wife Colleen and their three children.



It would need to be a compelling offer for Ramsey to consider moving now and, despite his standing in the game, his circumstances might limit the amount of potential suitors vying for his signature.

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BBC


If he was to stay, would playing in League One hamper his chances of being included in Wales' squad for the 2026 World Cup should they qualify?

And can he stay injury free? That in itself a massive task for him.

"I don't know," Ramsey said. "I don't know what's going to happen. At the moment I'm still in the early stages of rehab [from the hamstring injury] and I'm going to carry on with that."
Ramsey would not be the first third-tier player to represent Wales, who have picked from League Two and the Cymru Premier in the past.


However, playing in League One would represent a significant step down for a man who has spent the vast majority of his career at the highest levels of European football.


Ramsey has publicly stated that representing his country at a second World Cup is a factor in his desire to continue playing; there is a sense of unfinished business given how dismally Wales exited at the group stage in 2022.
But he was off the pace in Qatar and still only 31 at that point, as a lack of regular club football caught up with him and, in Ramsey's defence, many of his team-mates.


Four years on in the United States, Canada and Mexico, it is likely his powers will only have waned further.
That was one of the reasons for fellow midfielder Joe Allen's decision to retire last week.
"My instinct told me I wasn't going to get there [2026 World Cup]," said Allen, who like Ramsey, was a shadow of his former self in Qatar.


"Or, if I did get there, it wasn't going to be at the level I wanted to be representing my country at a World Cup."
Allen knew the time was right to step aside. A Welsh football great as he undoubtedly is, it had become apparent the 35-year-old could no longer reach the high standards he demanded of himself.


The same could be said of Ramsey but, unlike his long-time former Wales team-mate, he does not feel he is quite ready to let go.

Pay per play and a reduced package.

I like Ramsey. He's come up through our academy and had a brilliant career at the top level.

But, just like Joe Allen has, sometimes you have to accept that you're not going to get many more decent football matches out of your body.

I get that he wants to play in the World Cup. But first, Wales haven't even qualified yet.

Second, what are the chances of him having a meaningful and positive impact on the Wales squad in the tournament if we do qualify? Slim I would suggest, that's if his fitness even allows him to play.

We don't want another scenario like Bale in Qatar, when we had a top player going out with a whimper because he just wasn't up to it anymore.



I would happily take him at Cardiff City as a coach to work with the new manager or the U21 side. He could even stay as a player with that but on much reduced terms.

I would even consider him as manager if they go down the inexperienced route. In terms of inexperienced managers, Ramsey would make sense more than others.


But just as a player, I don't see the point. Very unlikely he'll play many games and as League One is more physical, he'd struggle to adapt.



So if he just wants to focus on playing, he'll probably have to find another club and I expect that will mean a pay cut.

Pay per play and a reduced package.

I would definitely agree with that option, his days of playing a huge part of a clubs season are sadly long gone. Might be the better option for the club to give him a deal like that.

Even if we do qualify for the next world cup we just don't have a team good enough to compete anymore, the glory days were short & wonderful to see but we're just an average team now, back to where we've always been in the international pecking order, he's one of the last hold outs from those days.

At this point his mind is writing checks that his body can't cash & he needs to retire from the playing side & start coaching the youngsters sooner rather than later before it is too late.