“A Hint Of Gary Shaw” – Pundit Loves Villa Talent With “Helluva” Career Ahead Of Him

With Steven Gerrard picking up all three points, and bragging rights, over former head coach Dean Smith as we took a 2-0 victory over Norwich City at Carrow Road last Tuesday, this Saturday wasn’t quite as exciting as we saw the return of Covid to the camp and our game against Burnley was called off late in the day.

Despite that, and the fact we weren’t the only side to see a game called off, BBC pundit Garth Crooks decided to shake up his Team of the Week feature for the Aunty Beeb and he’s used both of the last two rounds of matches to make up his starting XI.

Naturally for us, that means Academy graduate Jacob Ramsey gets another moment in the sun given how he stepped up fantastically well in that game and helped himself to his second professional goal for us as he opened the scoring in the 34th minute.

Whilst Crooks did partially focus on our first meeting with Smith coming so quickly after we made the change, he said of 20-year-old Ramsey.

“What an exciting prospect Villa look again under Steven Gerrard and Ramsey looks a real prospect. There’s a hint of Gary Shaw about his game. If he proves to be anything like as good as the former Aston Villa striker and title winner then he’s in for one helluva career. But he will need all of Gerrard’s guidance to do it.”

Ramsey is one of the youngsters who has come on leaps and bounds this year and Smith takes massive praise in that having given him good game time along the way as he continued learning and adjusting, but few can deny it appears the arrival of Gerrard may have given him an extra shot of confidence and desire as we haven’t seen such a rounded performance from him previously. Norwich was the first time he put his flashes together into a more consistent performance and long may that continue.

I’m certainly not old enough to qualify Crooks’ Gary Shaw comments, but I know we have studious and wiser members on Vital Villa who may like to add their own comments here.