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The summer of 2008 will almost certainly not be remembered as ‘The Hunt for Aaron Ramsey’, but it did leave Manchester United with egg on their face [Read the rest of this entry »]

Some might argue that Theo Walcott hasn’t made a great deal of progress since leaving Southampton for Arsenal, although there are countless examples of Arsene Wenger signing a player and helping them progress into a world-class talent. Take Cesc Fabregas for example, or Kolo Toure. Maybe Thierry Henry instead, or Emmanuel Adebayor. Will Aaron Ramsey be a star of the future, or even next season, after agreeing terms with the Gunners according to the BBC?

Aaron Ramsey has joined Arsenal from FA Cup finalists Cardiff City in a £5m deal, BBC Sport understands.

Champions League winners Manchester United and Premier League giants Everton were also fighting to sign the 17-year-old Welsh wonderkid.

But Ramsey has chosen Arsenal after the Gunners flew him out to Switzerland for face-to-face talks with boss Arsene Wenger, who is at Euro 2008.

Cardiff confirmed that Arsenal was the “best cash offer” for the young star.

Once the midfielder was on that plane, Arsenal moved firmly into the driving seat to sign him, although it remains to be seen as to whether he plays much of a role next season or instead farmed out on loan to glean some Premier League first-team experience.

What a wild goose chase this one has become. We all knew that Aaron Ramsey was attracting plenty of interest from the top Premier League clubs, but Chelsea are the odd one out by virtue of the fact that they’re the only team in the ‘Big Five’ who haven’t lodged a bid for the 17-year-old. The Guardian reports that Arsenal may have stolen a march on United, Liverpool and Everton due to Arsene Wenger meeting the young Bluebird in Switzerland on Saturday.

Aaron Ramsey will not decide on his future until after he has met Arsène Wenger in Switzerland on Saturday, despite Manchester United’s hopes of completing the 17-year-old’s signing this week. United announced on Tuesday that a fee, thought to be in the region of £5m, had been agreed with Cardiff City but they appear to have jumped the gun, with Everton, Liverpool and Arsenal all in the race.

It must be tremendously flattering for Ramsey to have these clubs falling over themselves to acquire his signature, although it’s important for him to choose wisely. It’s inconceivable that he’ll play too prominent a role for any of his suitors next season, and the likelihood is that he’d be farmed back on loan after signing on the dotted line anyhow.

Looks like Everton have thrown their hat into the ring in the chase for Cardiff “wunderkind” Aaron Ramsey. Moyes clearly fancies taking the 17-year-old under his wing and has tossed out a £5m bid, how successful their attempts to bag him will be, remains to be seen…

Everton have now been given permission to talk to the player about a move to Goodison Park.

Manchester United have also had a bid accepted, whilst Arsenal are reported to have expressed an interest in the player. (Official Everton Site)

So a decent sized bid for an exciting talent in what is the weakest area of Everton’s squad, Moyes is ticking all the right boxes!

Champions League and Premier League winners Manchester United have agreed a fee, thought to be between £5m to £6m, with FA Cup finalists Cardiff City for their 17-year-old teen sensation Aaron Ramsey.

Midfielder Ramsey, seen as a new Ryan Giggs, has been under the spotlight with the Bluebirds with their two appearances at Wembley. He was subject of interest from Arsenal, Liverpool and the boarding school that is Spurs, despite only 22 games and 2 goals for Cardiff.

A statement on manutd.com said:

Manchester United is delighted to announce it has agreed terms with Cardiff City for the transfer of Aaron Ramsey subject to terms being agreed and the player passing a medical.

I believe its a good move for United and Ramsey. His development will grow at United and it is great to see Fergie investing in young British talent. Its just a good job he isn’t English or he would have cost £10m+.

There is talk of him being loaned back to Ninian Park for the 2008/09 season, surely a good move for all three parties, what with the successes of Ben Foster at Watford and Fraizer Campbell at Hull.

Maybe Joe Ledley is next on the shopping list?

Cesc Fabregas was 17-years-old when he broke into the Arsenal first team and it’s possible that Aaron Ramsey will follow in his footsteps at the Emirates. However, the Gunners will have to up their bid for the Cardiff City midfielder after being told by the FA Cup finalists that they value their starlet at a much higher price than the £5 million on the table.

The Daily Telegraph report that Liverpool have also made a similar offer to try and secure Ramsey’s services, although it’s possible that the player will remain at Ninian Park for at least one more season before warming the bench of a Big Four club (plenty of time to do that as Theo Walcott can testify).

Liverpool and Arsenal, planning to build on their recent summer transfers, have both seen offers for 17-year old midfielder Aaron Ramsey rejected by Cardiff City.

Both offers, said to be close to £5m, were deemed unsuitable by the FA Cup finalists as a large part of the deals were based on provisions dependant on the teenager’s development. Cardiff are looking for a more sizeable cash settlement up front before they release their prize asset.

This rebuff clearly won’t stop Premier League clubs sniffing around the player, in an attempt to snare him before his valuation goes through the roof. However, with the Bluebirds gunning for promotion from the Championship next season, the princely sum of £10million could be enough to acquire the player and give City the chance to sign a handful of new players in the process.

But will one of the ‘Big Four’ make an offer that Cardiff City just can’t refuse? It’s clear that Aaron Ramsey is a star in the making, with the 17-year-old having already featured in an FA Cup final during his short career to date. However, despite potential overtures from Old Trafford, Anfield and The Emirates, the midfielder has told BBC that he’s happy to stay put for the time being.

“I don’t take much notice to be honest, I just ignore the speculation.

“I will do what I want to at the end of the day, but I am happy at Cardiff.”

The Welshman will be looking to avoid the path of Theo Walcott, who has only had limited first-team opportunities with Arsenal since signing from Southampton. There is the possibility that he will be snapped up in the summer, only to be loaned back out to a Championship club, even Cardiff. However, it seems as though there’s a wise head on those young shoulders.

Many have cited Arsene Wenger’s decision to allow Lassana Diarra leave in January as a reason why Arsenal lost some serious momentum in the Premier League title race. While it’s probably absurd to suppose that a squad player (albeit a very good one) was central to any hopes the Gunners had of winning the league, the Frenchman may well have been made to feel more welcome if Arsene Wenger had known that Mathieu Flamini was jumping ship to Milan before the season ended.

The Independent reveals that Diarra never felt as though he could please his former manager at The Emirates Stadium, despite what he felt were some very strong performances when he had the opportunity to play. The midfielder has a chance to be an FA Cup winner with Portsmouth this Saturday and doesn’t exactly have anything complimentary to say about his old club.

“I don’t think about Arsenal FC now, I am just focused on Portsmouth,” the 23-year-old Frenchman said as he prepared for Saturday’s FA Cup final at Portsmouth’s Hampshire training ground. “I left Arsenal because I wanted to play every week. When you are in the team, and even if you play well, the manager doesn’t put you on the pitch [for the next game] you have to do something. Every time he put me on the pitch I tried to do my best. For him, I don’t know if it was good enough, but for me…”

As we’ve pointed out in the past, Diarra certainly isn’t short of self-confidence and his performances in a Pompey shirt have been of a very high standard. Indeed, the Premier League outfit will be glad he’s in the team to face Cardiff, especially as a lack of firepower without the cup-tied Defoe means they might have to rely on winning by a solitary goal as they did in the semi-final against West Brom.

Did Arsene Wenger make a mistake in allowing Diarra to leave for the South Coast or was it a case of having his hands tied in so far as he couldn’t offer the player first-team football and the Frenchman wouldn’t hang around to try and hold down a place in the starting XI?

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Say what you like about Craig Bellamy (feel free to sum it up in six words!), but the Welsh hot-head of a striker is not all bad. Yes, he might have beaten John-Arne Riise up with a golf club while at Liverpool and OK, he might have had a heated exchange of words with a young lady in a Cardiff nightclub. However, the BBC report that he’s also prepared to put his money firmly where his mouth is by building a football academy in Sierra Leone.

“Because of the war, children haven’t had any opportunity,” he said.

“They haven’t been thrown a football, they’ve been thrown a gun.

“Now we can give them a chance that their fathers or grandfathers never had. That’s the buzz for me.

“I’m not looking to find and sell players. I’m not an agent. I want to make it clear that if any player does make it, any fee goes straight back into the academy.”

The article reports that the ex-Liverpool striker has set up the Craig Bellamy Foundation, ploughing £650k into creating a better life for the children growing up in this war-torn region. It’s good to see a minted footballer doing something positive with his wealth, albeit an unlikely one. Whatever next, Ashley Cole helping with the relief operation in Burma! That would change our opinion of the Chelsea defender!

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After all, his team looked pretty pretty shabby against Middlesbrough on Saturday, another team who looked like they needed the points more than Pompey. Sky Sports reports that Harry Redknapp is adamant that his team aren’t going to go through the motions against Fulham, alhough exactly how heartening that is for fans of Birmingham and Reading remains to be seen.

Redknapp told Sky Sports: “I will field a full strength side as I owe that to other people in a relegation battle.

“I wouldn’t do that – it is not fair, I wouldn’t want someone to do that to me so I won’t be doing that.

“It will be a tough game against Fulham. I know some people say you have to look after yourself maybe, and if I get injuries they will say I shouldn’t have done it but next week I will be putting out as good a team as I can field.

“They have had a flyer, they have done what we did two years go – everyone wrote us off and everyone wrote Fulham off and now they are right back in the race and it will be a very difficult game again next week but I will make sure we are up for that game – I will make sure of that.”

In a way, fielding a full-strength team may be to Fulham’s advantage anyway. After all, if Redknapp played a bunch of fringe players, they might be more likely to play their socks off in an attempt to get into the reckoning for the Wembley final against Cardiff. Perhaps the first-teamers will be more likely to shun a few tough challenges and make sure they are fit for one of the biggest games of their footballing career.

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Unlike Afonso Alves’ brilliant effort yesterday, it’s been ages since we had a decent FA Cup song. Obviously, the best one ever to grace the charts was the ‘Anfield Rap’, courtesy of Liverpool, although Manchester United’s ‘Come On You Reds’ was half-decent. Apart from that, they all fade into obscurity, although Three Lions was a decent hit in 1996 for the England team and so was World in Motion in 1990.

Can Cardiff City put together something memorable ahead of the FA Cup Final this season? Probably not, although icWales have reported that James Fox, lifelong fan and Broadway ‘star’, has put together ‘Bluebirds Flying High’ for the Championship team.

“It did cross my mind at Chasetown in the third round that we might need the traditional FA Cup song if we went all the way to Wembley,” said 32-year-old Fox, who represented the UK in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.

“But as soon as we beat Middlesbrough in the last eight, I decided to write and record it.

“It’s a real honour as a fan to be able to do this for City.”

Here at COS, we have just one thing to say. Portsmouth, where’s your song? Portsmouth, Portsmouth, where’s your song?

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There’s never been any love lost between Cardiff and Swansea, two of the three Welsh clubs in the Football League. Indeed, ex-Swan Lee Trundle received a pretty hostile reception when he recently visited Ninian Park with new club Bristol City. He won’t be forgetting that in a hurry!

The Times reports that this rivalry has led to BBC pundit Leighton James being dumped by BBC Wales after admitting he wants Barnsley to trounce Cardiff in the FA Cup semi-finals. Surely the bloke’s entitled to an opinion?

James, who played 88 times for Swansea in a career that included spells with Burnley, Derby County and Queens Park Rangers, made it plain in his column in the South Wales Evening Post that he retains his loyalty to “his” Welsh club. “To see Cardiff in the final would be hard to take for Swansea fans,” he wrote. “So, to be brutally honest, I think I’m behind Barnsley on this one.”

Is this harsh or should the pundit not be making these sort of comments, considering BBC Wales are representative of all Welsh clubs? It doesn’t stop other pundits on BBC, Sky and ITV from having a clear preference for certain teams to win, although it appears the broadcasting company have no option other than to incur the wrath of their viewing public by keeping the guy on.