Gerrard’s record will be music to Villa kids’ ears!
AFTER congratulating his Villa staff on Saturday, new head coach Steven Gerrard made a point of going over to a player he has instantly taken a shine to.
The player in question was Jacob Ramsey, the 20-year-old who is improving all the time and possesses similar traits to his new mentor, given their midfield playing styles.
Ramsey was one of Villa’s standout performers against Brighton and Gerrard was quick to praise the academy graduate.
“Jacob Ramsey was outstanding for such a youngster,” he said. “We’ve got youngsters around the squad with big talent.”
At his unveiling last week, Gerrard made a huge point of driving standards within the academy and not being afraid to trust Villa’s rookies in the Premier League.
One of the main reasons for his appointment at Villa was chief executive Christian Purslow being impressed by Gerrard’s track record of “developing top young players in the Liverpool academy, which is experience we value highly at Aston Villa”.
Speaking at last week’s press conference, Purslow said: “I think it was an inspirational idea that when he was transitioning out of playing to coaching at Liverpool he was given full responsibility of his own team, the under-18s.
“The academy and youth football is the central feature of our strategy for this football club. What we’ve done in the last two years in taking an academy which was slightly full of cobwebs and hadn’t produced a first-team player for some time to winning the FA Youth Cup in two years is perhaps the most
crowning achievement in the last three years.
“Steven’s familiarity with the process of developing and bringing through great young players was a crucial attraction to his candidacy.”
Ramsey was alongside fellow academy graduates Carney Chukwuemeka and Keinan Davis in the squad on Saturday, while Jaden Philogene-Bidace and Tim Iroegbunam were part of the group as the pair watched on from the stands.
Lamare Bogarde has continued to
train with the first team this season, while it has been the same for the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Cameron Archer, among others. Gerrard revealed he will be watching every single player in the days, weeks and months ahead, from those at under-18 level right through to first team.
“It’s part of our jobs and roles. We have a responsibility to try and improve every player of Aston Villa,’’ he said. “We will give loads of opportunities for youngsters to train with us on the right days and the right times. There’s already half-a-dozen that have played in the first team and have taken their opportunity.
“I think the message to the whole academy, especially the lads that are a lot older and closer and on the fringe of the first team is, ‘we’ll be watching them every move they make. On and off the pitch’.
“The ball is very much in their court
to go and prove to us that they are capable of being a regular in this team. They will get opportunities if they are good enough.”
George Boateng, Villa under-23s’ assistant coach, said: “You hear the new gaffer talking about academy players, development, young players and that everything has to be spot-on in terms of his standards he sets. That’s really encouraging for us and, hopefully, that inspires the youngsters to think, ‘if we do well there is an opportunity to get to the first team’.”
Following the summer sale of Jack Grealish to Manchester City for £100 million, Villa have one of the most valuable youth academies in England.
The club have made £110 million from the sales of their graduate players since 2010 with Ciaran Clark (£5.1m) and Andreas Weimann (£3.2m) behind the big-money sale of last season’s captain.