happened, then she was the one
walking the corridors. She’ll hate me
for saying this if she sees it but she’s
now retired and I’ve started paying
her to be my cleaner.”
Ramsdale throws his head back
laughing with mischief. He is talking
via Zoom, his blond hair uncombed
and beard wispy. There is something
entirely ordinary about Ramsdale
that makes him so endearing.
Nearly every weekend during his
childhood the Ramsdales would
either go camping or sailing on Nick’s
boat. These are warm memories of
the past but three weeks ago they all
ended up on an unexpected, but
unforgettable, trip to San Marino.
“As the national anthem is going
on, I look up and see my girlfriend
crying, my mum and dad crying, my
brother and agent holding it together.
That was emotional,” he says. “My
mum and dad have both sacrificed so
much to get me to football —
skipping work early and dad saying
no to work just to come down to
Bournemouth and look after me.
“My dad’s a character.
Embarrassing at times but that’s just
what dads do. He’s got a selection of
hats he wears — fezzes, smoking hats
and old pilot hats. He’s bonkers and
wants to be the life of the party. I getthat from him but we were just a
normal family with my two older
brothers. When I was five or six and
wanting to play they were off
climbing trees, so I had to entertain
myself. I think I picked up a bit of
weirdness in my personality.”
He has found familiarity at Arsenal
in David Seaman, the former England
goalkeeper who is back at the club
helping to coach the youth teams. “He’s
like one my dad’s friends,” Ramsdale
says. “We don’t speak too much about
advice, just normal chat. He’s interested
in fishing, too, but most of the time it’s
me asking what playing with the
others, like [Ian] Wrighty and [Patrick]
Vieira and Ray Parlour was like. It’s
more like story time.”
Ramsdale hopes he will have some
to tell one day. “There’s this great
thing at the training ground where
[an image of] Arsène Wenger and the
trophies they won with him are on
this wall. And then there’s a blank
space next to it. I don’t know if this is
what it means, but the way I looked at
it was: that’s our wall.”
A north London derby victory over
Tottenham was a highlight of his
good start, but the standout for
Ramsdale has been the relationship
with Bernd Leno, Arsenal’s German
goalkeeper. “It can be tough,” he says.It was at The Dorchester hotel, during
a testimonial dinner for the recently
retired England fly half Toby Flood,
that words of wisdom were passed
from a rugby World Cup-winner with
wonderful feet to a man hoping his
precious hands will one day hold
football’s equivalent.
“This is a little off script but I went
to this dinner on Wednesday, got to
meet some incredible ex-rugby
players and the chance to speak to
Jonny Wilkinson,” Aaron Ramsdale
says. “He’s very focused on the mind
and he said, ‘Why would you put a
limit on something?’ If you say you
want to get into the Champions
League then, once you’ve got into it,
you’ve hit your roof, you’ve hit your
limit. If you asked me a week ago, I’d
have said I want to do Champions
League and win trophies and stuff,
but now.. .”
Now, the future must seem limitless
to Ramsdale. Only seven months
after experiencing the pain of back-
to-back relegations, first with
Bournemouth and last season with
Sheffield United, the 23-year-old has
emerged as the standout performer at
Arsenal, with the second-best
statistics of any goalkeeper in the
Premier League and his first senior
England cap on the wall.
Tonight Ramsdale shares the field
with the man who has been given the
gloves at England’s past two major
tournaments, as Arsenal play at
Goodison Park against Jordan
Pickford’s Everton. “There is a fight
on,” Gareth Southgate, the England
manager, said of the competition to
be the first-choice goalkeeper after
Ramsdale’s debut in San Marino last
month.
Ramsdale is honest about his hopes
and expectations with England and
he describes the challenge he faces
against Pickford, while revealing the
talks that took place before his move
to Arsenal and the key change he
made during the process. But, right
now, Ramsdale’s focus is being on best
behaviour.
It is a Sunday afternoon and the
smell of roast dinner is wafting
through the home of his girlfriend
Georgina’s parents’ house in the
Buckinghamshire village of Iver,
where they are about to sit down
to eat. The scene is unlikely to be
similar to the one often found
around the Ramsdale table at
Christmas.
“Me and my eldest
brother [Eddie] get told
off a lot,” he says,
settling on to a sofa.
“We’ll all eat together
and it always ends with
Eddie choking because
he’s laughing so much,
dad storming off
because we’re taking
the mickey, mum a bit
tipsy from the
Babycham and [his
other brother] Ollie sat
there shaking his head
not happy with us.
“We go back home
like a normal family
from Stoke-on-Trent
with me and Eddie
pulling faces at each
other and showing a bit
of food in your mouth. It’s so, so
childish. But it always happens at
Christmas dinner. It’s bonkers.”
This window into the Ramsdale
dining room could act as a
reminder of how young England’s
newest goalkeeper really is. But it
also provides an insight into the
family that has helped to shape him
into a personality able to emerge
from difficulty to become Mikel
Arteta’s No 1.
Whispers of interest from Arsenal
were first heard when Ramsdale was
part of England’s provisional squad
for the European Championship this
summer. By the time rumour became
reality, he was ready for the call.
Bukayo Saka, now a team-mate
with England and Arsenal, had sent
Arteta’s number to Ramsdale. “I was
able to prepare myself, have a drink of
water and clear my throat,” he says.
“He just wanted to make sure I
wanted the same thing as him and the
main conversation was, ‘We want to
see your smile at Arsenal, I want to
see that every day. It might take a
year to come and play, or six months,
but don’t get bogged down.’”
Ramsdale did not. The smile has
been seen regularly this season after
making saves so outstanding that
Peter Schmeichel, the great Danish
goalkeeper, said he had not seen such
quality for years. For many, this
outcome was unexpected.
Arsenal’s interest led to loaded
questions posed on social media from
supporters about Ramsdale’s history.
“I saw the backlash,” he says. “That’s
when I made the decision to turn
comments off, notifications off for
people I don’t follow on Instagram
and Twitter. People can tag me but I
won’t see it, so it won’t come up on
my feed.
“When people were saying I was
getting a lot of stick and abuse, I said,
‘Am I?’ Because I didn’t really know
and I didn’t really care because, yes,
I’ve been relegated twice but the way
I looked at it was two years of
completely different experiences to
other people at 23 [years old]. It’s me
and ten other people on the pitch.”
No one can accuse Ramsdale
of not being fully invested. In
January last year, during his
last season at Bournemouth, a
hamstring injury prevented
him from playing a game
against Watford. Not
only did Ramsdale sit
with fans in the
Vitality Stadium but
he loudly led the
chants. His parents,
Nick and Caroline,
were at the opposite
end with their season
tickets.
Both have a sporting
history. They met while
competing in athletics
as 400m runners.
His dad
represented Great
Britain once and his
mum had trials for
the England netball
squad. Nick is a
plumber by trade and
Caroline worked as a
school behavioural
officer. “Anything“It’s the hardest position on the pitch
— there’s only one place. He’s been
the standout for a number of years. At
the moment, I’ve got the shirt but he’s
perfect with me every day and I’m
loving having him with me.”
It’s a similar situation with England.
Ramsdale lists off the qualities of his
colleagues, Pickford, Sam Johnstone,
Nick Pope and Dean Henderson, as
he considers whether being No 1 in
Qatar a year from now is possible.
“I have the belief, but it’s whether I
believe I can do it in that time. Jordan
has been absolutely outstanding. It’s
going to take a lot to get in front of
him. It’s a long way away and
anything can happen but keep playing
for Arsenal, keep doing well and
hopefully I can be in with a shout and
see what happens. I’d be very happy
to go, to be honest.”
But, for now, there is no need to set
a limit. Like Wilkinson, it could mean
that one day he makes history with
his hands.
6 Aaron Ramsdale attended Amazon’s
Black Friday Live, taking part in the
Deliveroo Gaming Battle. To watch
again, go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/
blackfridayliveTONIGHT: EVERTON v ARSENAL
7PM SKY SPORTS, KICK-OFF 8PM‘I saw the backlash against me
After his standout displays for Arsenal,
Aaron Ramsdale tells Tom Roddy he has
his sights set on being England’s No 1
Ramsdale has
made a string of
fine saves since
signing for
Arsenal, inset,
when he brought
along his parents,
girlfriend and the
ashes of his
grandfather8 1GG Monday December 6 2021 | the times
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