Jacob Ramsey

[Toronto Villa]

Ramsey back in full training, Philogene there today.

Where did you see that?

https://x.com/johntownley11/status/1815359576084230497?s=46

[Risso]

Also in the video here:

https://x.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1815354308302454972?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[Tuscans]

Ramsey back in full training, Philogene there today.

Where did you see that?

From Villa's social media.

[PeterWithesShin]

If we get him back to fitness and form that would really improve us.

[Dogtanian]

If we get him back to fitness and form that would really improve us.

Not according to lots of Spurs fans, who say he is crap and could barely get a game for us last season... 

[Tuscans]

If we get him back to fitness and form that would really improve us.

Not according to lots of Spurs fans, who say he is crap and could barely get a game for us last season... 

But they have Werner and Johnson...."Big eye roll face cartoon picture"

[Footy-Vill]

https://x.com/AVFCStatto/status/1821267560798548223
What a great goal by Ramsey ! That's so encouraging !

 For me Ramsey starts left side on Saturday and it's his position.
Rogers would be central off Watkins.
Be great to have R and R  playing together and linking up.
Be some attack with Watkins and Bailey

[jwarry]

In today’s Times

Aston Villa midfielder on his hardest season, boyhood club’s return to the Champions League, and why he’s glad they rejected an offer from Tottenham
 
Charlotte Duncker

For many Aston Villa fans, this is the final countdown to the biggest season of their lifetimes, back in Europe’s elite competition for the first time in 41 years while they attempt to mount a challenge to close the gap at the top of the Premier League. But for Jacob Ramsey this isn’t only the opportunity to represent his boyhood club in the Champions League, but also a season in which he wants to define himself as an elite-level footballer.
The 23-year-old is looking to put the emotional and physical trauma of two foot operations in the past 12 months behind him and pick up where he left off a year ago when he was excelling for England at the European Under-21 Championship.

“Last season was so hard,” Ramsey reflects while sat in the plush surroundings of the Intercontinental Hotel, Washington DC, during Villa’s tour to the United States. “My aim going into that tournament [the under-21s] was to be the best player and to win it, and I was so nearly there but some things just don’t work out that way.”
It wasn’t only his Euro dream that was ended in the 67th minute at the Ramaz Shengelia Stadium in Georgia last June, but any hope he had of being fit for the start of the season. Ramsey broke a foot in the quarter-final win over Portugal and could only watch as his team-mates went on to defeat Israel in the semi-finals and Spain in the final to lift the trophy.

That initial foot break ended Ramsey’s hopes of picking up where he had left off at the end of the 2022-23 season, when he had started to push on initially under Steven Gerrard and then Unai Emery. Again, he could only
watch as Villa thrived. “Coming back to Villa, seeing the team doing so well and I was stop-start with injuries, it was difficult,” Ramsey says. “The boys were doing so well, but it’s so different watching in the stands or at home.
“The boss [Emery] tried to make me feel involved, but it’s not the same. When we win it’s good for the boys, but deep down for me I’m still upset and kind of feeling like I should be part of the celebration. When we lose, it’s even worse. I want to be part of the team and help them.”

It was the biggest setback so far of a career that started at Villa when he was six, progressed through to him breaking into the first team under Dean Smith in 2019 and had pundits backing him to be picked for the England senior team at 20 years old. But with a father who boxed professionally, fighting against Ricky Hatton in 1998 and 1999, and younger brothers who have also played football their whole lives, there is a mentality within the family that giving up isn’t an option. “Last season was the lowest I’ve been so it can’t really get any worse,” Ramsey says. “Mentally looking back now, I’ve come out so much stronger.”

JJ, as he is known to his friends and team-mates, is too young to remember his father, Mark, fighting but he is no stranger to the boxing ring himself. In the off-season when he was younger he would spend the summer at Small Heath ABC for sparring sessions. “You’re alone in the ring one v one and that’s the type of mentality he tried to instil early on — it’s all about you, don’t worry about other people,”

Ramsey says of his dad. “If you’re doing the right thing for yourself you’ll be fine, so we used to go to the boxing gym every pre-season just to keep fit. Boxing is a really tough sport, physically and mentally.” That fighting spirit is going to be needed this season in what could be a new-look Villa, with eight signings already made this summer. Emery has gone for a mixture of youth and experience with his new additions and another attacking addition is still on the cards before the deadline.

But Ramsey, who has featured in three pre-season games, is confident in his ability and knows his position within Emery’s set-up; on the left-hand side cutting in. The departures of key players such as Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby — who were sold to Juventus and Al-Ittihad respectively, and contributed 20 goals and nine assists between them in all competitions last season — means there is pressure on the rest of the team, not just Ramsey, to step up and fill the void. But while the talk has been about new faces Ross Barkley, Enzo Barrenechea and Amadou Onana in a new-look midfield, it could be the return of Ramsey — restricted to only 16 league appearances, including eight starts, last season — that makes the biggest difference.

“I think regardless of if Villa didn’t bring anyone in, that’s my mentality to be the best I can possibly be,” Ramsey says. “Before I got injured again last season my aim was to push back into the team. I wanted to get my name out there on a big platform and this season I just want to do that again and get back to my best.” In a summer where Villa have been forced to sell players to balance the books so they do not risk breaching Profitability and Sustainability Regulations, selling Ramsey as “pure profit” because he is a homegrown player might have seemed tempting. The fact this has not happened says all you need to know about how highly Emery rates him.

Villa rejected a bid from Tottenham Hotspur and tentative interest from other clubs has been shut down, while any last-minute offers are expected to be rebuffed. Despite his lack of football last season, Ramsey’s status has not diminished. “I was injured again so when these rumours were speculated the manager was still coming out and saying he wanted to keep me and stuff, so that was good to hear,” Ramsey says. “Regardless of if I was out of form or injured I knew I was part of his plans, so for any player to hear that is really good.” And that external noise hasn’t distracted Ramsey from his purpose; to get back to full fitness and be the main man for Villa, the club he used to sit in the stands and watch with his brothers, mother and father from a young age. “Because I was out for so long it’s weirdly made me believe in myself so much more,” he says. “Normally if you play games you believe in yourself, but I’ve gone the opposite way. Having so much time on my own, it’s given me time to think.”

For the first time in his career he had a full summer break, with no national team tournaments, and while that presented a rare chance to relax, he was still a regular at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training ground, as he looked to get the extra work in with the physios while his team-mates were on holiday. The rest of his time was divided up between holidays to the Seychelles and south of France and watching Netflix. But even then he was picking up tips from different sports on how to improve. “They’re super-confident,” he says of NFL players after watching Receiver, an American football documentary. “Maybe not to other people but to themselves, they say a lot of things before the games in the hotel so if I took anything from it, it’s that.”

Ramsey, and Villa, will need all the small advantages they can find if they are going to take another step forward under Emery. Last season they finished fourth, but there was a 14-point gap to third-placed Liverpool, with Arsenal and Manchester City further clear. “At the moment it’s tough because they’re the three best teams and we’re trying to catch them,” he says. “Our aim last season was to try to get away from the teams like Tottenham [who finished two points behind Villa in fifth] and the teams below us, so I think this season he’ll want to make another step up and get closer to Liverpool, Arsenal and City. But those three teams over the last four or five years have been really good, so it will be difficult.”
  

[Duncan Shaw]

What a great read that is.  He could be our ace card this season I feel.

[AV84]

Must have been a pretty bad year in the Ramsey household, Aaron is still out for a while yet.

[OCD]

Cole signed his first professional contract though at least.

[AV84]

Only a matter of time before he's out on crutches then.

[eamonn]

Expecting big things from the lad this season, he has the potential to eclipse Grealish.

[spartacuss]

Memo to JJ: Get some boots that protect your feet better...  He was definitely targeted by some teams and they succeeded in keeping out one of our most exciting players.

[Dogtanian]

Memo to JJ: Get some boots that protect your feet better...  He was definitely targeted by some teams and they succeeded in keeping out one of our most exciting players.

Wasn’t he originally injured playing for England U21s?