Friday 18 November 2016 11:38, UK
Ahead of ReUnited this weekend, live on Sky Sports, Aaron Ramsey reveals to Patrick Davison how Arsene Wenger convinced him to join Arsenal instead of Manchester United...
Manchester United might have been a huge part of Aaron Ramsey's life.
As a boy, with his dad Kevin a United fan, he could quite easily have ended up supporting them. As a player, when Sir Alex Ferguson's champions came calling, he wasn't too far away from signing for them.
Instead, it was Cardiff City that became his 'main team'. The team he would watch and support (though I don't think he'd disagree if I suggested there was a bit of affection for United).
Instead, it was Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger who persuaded him - via a private jet - to entrust his development to the North London club.
Born in Caerphilly, half an hour north of Cardiff, rugby had been Ramsey's first love. But as other sports came onto his radar - he played cricket and was a school pentathlon champion in athletics - football began to take centre stage.
His childhood memories of the Premier League come from a time when Arsenal and United were out there on their own as the league's dominant forces. From an era when the league's greatest midfield rivalry was raging.
"I always remember it being a tough clash and a massive battle," says Ramsey, who I suspect, understandably given his dad's allegiances, might not have been supporting Arsenal back then.
"[Roy] Keane and [Patrick] Vieira, they would just be at each other from the first minute to the last.
"It was like they hated each other and they wanted to go out and be physical and smash into each other.
"But they were really exciting games and things like the incidents in the tunnel would (as a kid) get you massively pumped for them."
Really, at just 17, Ramsey was still a kid when, having made waves at Cardiff, he found himself at centre of another battle between two of England's big boys. Both wanted him. The decision was his - Arsenal or United?
"I went up there to see the facilities and I went to see Arsene Wenger," says the midfielder, who was close enough to signing for United for the club to announce it on their website.
In the end, it was Wenger rolling out the red carpet for a young player he rated highly which won the day.
"He did a lot to try and get me to this club. As a 17-year-old, flying out on a private jet to his hotel (in Switzerland for Euro 2008) was surreal but I think I made the right decision.
"I just felt a bit more wanted by Arsenal and by the boss."
Under Wenger, Ramsey has emerged as a top player at Premier League and international level - but, as we all know, it's been far from straightforward. In February 2010 he suffered one of the worst injuries we've seen on a Premier League pitch at Stoke.
It was only 15 months later, when Ramsey scored the winner and played a starring role against United at the Emirates, that the Welshman finally began to believe he would rediscover his best form.
"To put in the performance that I did and the team did, it was just a really happy moment for me.
"You don't feel right up to speed after rehab - even when it's a year or two later. That was the game where I felt, 'I'm back!'."
Games against United have not always been so kind to him. He's been part of a winning team just once, in the FA Cup, at Old Trafford in March last year. In August 2011, he was part of the side hammered 8-2 there.
This Saturday represents a chance for Arsenal to suggest they're made of sterner stuff than they have been in the recent past. It might also be chance for Ramsey to impose himself on a Premier League season which, largely because of injury, he hasn't started a game in since the opening day.
"After the Euros I had, I was desperate to get back and carry that on," says Ramsey, who was arguably Wales' best player in France.
I just felt a bit more wanted by Arsenal and by the boss.
"Then to get an injury in the first game and a few setbacks after that - it's been so frustrating.
"It's one of those things, you can't get too down, you just have to get on with it. Luckily the team have been doing well, now we just have to keep that going."
With Jose Mourinho and Wenger together on the touchline, Arsenal might have to try and 'keep it going' in a battle something like those of the late 90s and early 2000s, that Ramsey remembers as a kid.
"The game has moved on, some of those challenges you wouldn't get away with these days," he says.
"But we are in a great position at the moment and have stated the season very well. They have had a lot of change over the summer and have some very exciting players, so I'm sure it will be a tasty encounter."
We certainly hope so.
