RAMBO IS READY TO IMPRESS AT HOME
South Wales Echo

RAMBO is ready to make his first home appearance for Wales' Under-21 team.

Cardiff City's Aaron Ramsey, nicknamed Rambo by his club-mates, played in Halmstad against Sweden and in Grenoble against France.

Now he's set for a third appearance in less than two months, this time against Malta at Wrexham's Racecourse Ground, since Cardiff City intervened to stop Wales playing Ramsey at more than one age level.

He's still only 16 years old and Cardiff manager Dave Jones insisted: "Pick an age level for Aaron and stick with it."

Now the talented midfield player from Caerphilly is a regular in an under-21 squad which also includes fellow Bluebirds Chris Gunter and Darcy Blake.

City are highly protective of Ramsey, who travels everywhere with the first team and has made three appearances so far.

He is a superbly balanced central midfielder who has a good range of passing.

A number of Premiership clubs have tracked Ramsey's progress and Everton moved in with a £1m offer, albeit a down payment of £200,000 and promises of more based on first team appearances.

Liverpool, too, contacted Cardiff to register their interest, while Newcastle United made a strong bid to sign Ramsey before he joined the Bluebirds as a schoolboy.

Ramsey, though, is now committed to Cardiff's youth academy, where he is a first year scholar, and he could be offered a senior contract when he is 17.

He signed for Cardiff City after being spotted at an Urdd football tournament - and he has spent half his life at NinianPark.

"I signed at the age of eight and I'm still here at 16 years old," said Ramsey.

"The last eight years have flown by. It doesn't seem all that long ago when I first came to the club. I have come a long way since then, but I am under no illusion there is still a lot of hard work ahead."

Ramsey went on Cardiff's pre-season tour to Portugal and became City's youngest ever when he ran on against HullCity last season.

"I can't dwell on individual moments, I am just starting out," said Ramsey. "I still have a lot of hard work ahead."

In their last two matches, Wales' Under-21s have beaten Sweden 4-3 away, and lost 1-0 in France.

They now have Uefa Championship matches coming up against Malta tomorrow, Bosnia at Wrexham and France in Cardiff next month and then Malta away next February.

Wales Under-21s: O Fon Williams (Crewe), K Letheran (Barnsley), C Gunter (Cardiff City), J Jacobson (Bristol Rovers), N Taylor (Wrexham), R Wiggins (Crystal Palace), M Williams (Wrexham), R Williams (Middlesbrough), J Allen (Swansea City), M Bradley (Walsall), D Blake (Cardiff City), A King (Leicester), L James (Southampton), S MacDonald (Swansea City), A Ramsey (Cardiff City), D Cotterill (Wigan Athletic), C Evans (Manchester City), S Vokes (Bournemouth).


KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, SAYS FLYNN
Western Mail

THE kids are all right - as far as Wales U21 boss Brian Flynn is concerned.

National boss John Toshack is again contemplating introducing more youngsters into his senior squad in the wake of his team's failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

The need for fresh faces has been heightened for Toshack following the dismal display by the senior team in Cyprus. A showdown meeting of staff after Saturday's match drew up a list of potential youngsters for quick elevation to the Wales frontline.

And the monitoring of the new breed starts in earnest tonight at the Uefa U21 Championship Group D qualifier against Malta at Wrexham's Racecourse Ground.

Flynn has lost Chelsea goalkeeper Rhys Taylor from his squad with a groin injury and called up former Swansea youngster Kyle Letheran - now at Barnsley - in his place.

Wales put up a good show in their first qualifier in France before losing 1-0, and Flynn is confident there are several young stars capable of catching Toshack's eye.

He said, "The system is always evolving. There are always a new batch of youngsters trying to make the breakthrough, and we have several in this squad who will be interesting John soon."

Flynn will field a side which includes Cardiff's Arron Ramsey and Chris Gunter, Swansea's Joe Allen, Manchester City's Ched Evans, Walsall's Mark Bradley and Wigan's David Cotterill.

Cotterill and Gunter have senior caps and all five could find themselves blooded after the final Euro 2008 matches against San Marino - tonight - the Republic of Ireland and Germany.