Good luck Rambo in your new career as a manager | OneFootball

Aaron Ramsey will be the latest Gunner to venture into management after being appointed to lead Cardiff for the final three games of the campaign.

Although technically now a player-manager, it had already been confirmed that the midfielder would remain on the sidelines until the end of the season. Ramsey has an opportunity to cement his legacy in South Wales if he can keep his hometown club in the Championship.

At the club since the age of nine, the youngest to ever play for the Bluebirds, and having featured in an FA Cup Final at just 17, Rambo’s responsibility is to prevent relegation to the third tier of the English football pyramid.

It reflects the ongoing turmoil at Cardiff City Stadium that Omer Riza was dismissed two days before a must-win fixture, with the club now taking a gamble on someone with no prior coaching experience. Ramsey’s only formal qualifications outside of his playing career at the highest level are a UEFA A Licence and an Elite Youth A Licence.

(Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images)

While recovering from surgery, the Welsh captain has been working with the youth team, but he is hardly a new presence within the club. The hope is that the respect he has from his peers will lift the dressing room.

He will be supported by some coaching expertise. His assistant, Chris Gunter, currently manages the Welsh Under-19 side.

Although his return home began promisingly, recurring hamstring problems restricted him to just 13 league appearances last season and only eight this time around. Remarkably, he is still only 34, and his former teammate Jack Wilshere—now a first-team coach at Norwich—is just 33. Both careers have been severely impacted by injuries. Without such misfortune, they might still be playing at Arsenal today. Their minds remain willing, but their bodies do not.

A free agent in the summer, Ramsey had been contemplating his future before this unexpected development. Would he be willing to play in League One? Could the club afford to retain him if relegated? Would another surgery be necessary, given the last one was unsuccessful? Would any other club offer him a contract, considering his fitness history?

What if he succeeds in the next two weeks and is offered the managerial role permanently? Would he retire from playing, or attempt to juggle both responsibilities?

Cardiff are currently 23rd in the table, but only one point adrift of safety. Their next two matches are both at home.

Who knows—perhaps this is the first step towards Ramsey one day returning to the Emirates as our manager?

Good luck Rambo

Once a Gunner, always a Gunner

Dan Smith