STAND BACK... LEGEND AT WORK!
England keeper coach Steele backs Ramsdale to be Gunners club hero
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ENGLAND youth coach Eric Steele claims keeper Aaron Ramsdale can become an Arsenal legend.
Steele (right) was goalkeeping coach when England won the European Under-19 Championship in Georgia four years ago with Ramsdale in the side.
He has kept in touch ever since and, at home yesterday, Steele watched, especially for Mirror Sport, the video of Ramsdale’s stunning performance against Leicester.
James Maddison thought he’d got Leicester back into the game with his 43rd-minute free-kick. But Ramsdale flew to his left, shoved the ball against the crossbar, and then blocked Jonny Evans’s follow-up.
“There is so much in that save,” said Steele, who worked with greats like Peter Schmeichel, Edwin van der Sar and David De Gea when he was keeper coach at Manchester United. “Schmeichel says it’s the best save he’s seen for a long time and he would recognise what went into it.
“The speed with which he got across the goal, plus the timing and the power of getting the ball against the crossbar... simply superb.
“That power comes from the work he’s been doing in the gym. He’s very dedicated in that respect. The push-off, the timing in his hands, it’s got everything in it. There aren’t going to be many saves better than that this season.”
Gabriel had put Arsenal ahead with a clever header and Emile Smith Rowe added a second before sleepy Leicester had a kick. But then the Ramsdale Show began as the Foxes finally began to wake up.
“I’m really not too sure how I got to that free-kick,” admitted Ramsdale, who cost Arsenal £24million when he signed from Sheffield United back in August. “I have trained with Madders a couple of times and played with him a lot so I was more worried that he was going to reverse it to my side. Being so close to the wall he had to float it, and that’s what gave me a chance.”
The Gunners are unbeaten since Ramsdale got into the team and Steele added: “Aaron is known as Rambo and the nickname suits him. He is a big personality.
“Knowing what he’s been through, part of the Bournemouth and Sheffield United teams that were relegated, I don’t think he would have been bothered one bit the first time he walked into that Arsenal dressing room.
“Aaron would have said: ‘I’ll prove people wrong.’ He’s a character and he’s gone to Arsenal and become a major part of their dressing room quickly. You can’t do that just with personality, it’s got to be performance as well.
“He was voted player of the year at Bournemouth and Sheffield United, so that tells you what the fans thought of him. “Ramsdale is only 23 yet he has played 123 games in his career already and come up the hard way.
“Peter Schmeichel was 28 when he went to Manchester United so Ramsdale is a pup by comparison. “Aaron’s got a good 10 years in him. I said when David De Gea signed for United that they had got a keeper for 10 years and he’s still going.
“Aaron can become as big a legend for Arsenal as David Seaman (1990-2003, 405 games) and Jens Lehmann (2003-08, 147 games) were.
“When he came to us at England he’d clearly had good coaching at Sheffield United with Darren Ward and at Bournemouth with Anthony White and Neil Moss.
“I said he’d be a late developer and we are seeing that.
Now he’s just waiting for his first senior England cap. And that will come.”