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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Mark Walker

Calvin Ramsay reveals Aberdeen mindset amid multiple transfer suitors as he raves about 'brilliant' Jim Goodwin

In-demand Calvin Ramsay has spent much of the season being linked with life-changing moves to clubs in England and Italy

But the Aberdeen right-back isn't focusing on the significant interest that is set to land his side a record fee for one of their homegrown stars.

Ramsay earned his big chance under axed Dons boss Stephen Glass who put his faith in the 18-year-old at the start of the season.

His stellar displays has had clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton, West Ham United Leeds United watching him.

Record Sport revealed Bologna tabled a £4.8m offer for the Scotland U21 star before the January window closed but it wasn't enough to prise him away from the Granite City.

Ramsay then suffered an thigh injury which curtailed his progress and he admits he’s not reached his early season heights since his return.

But he stressed it’s got nothing to do with him being linked with moves and he's loved the attention.

He said: “It is good to be honest because when I’m young growing up it’s all I want to do - play first team football then hopefully get a big-money move one day. That’s what you want to do.

“But it’s all about learning and you’ve got to keep calm. You can’t let it get to your head.

“If you do then you can end up thinking you’re better than you are and not playing how you can play.

“It’s good hearing all that stuff but for me I’ve just got to produce the performances on the pitch then everything else will play itself out.

“It was almost every day there was something on Twitter or in the papers. I’m on Twitter so I’m seeing those things but I try not to get caught up in it because that’s the worst thing you can do.

“My agent takes care of all that, I just need to play football and produce the best performances I can. If I do that then everything else will take care of itself.

“On Deadline Day, I was up in Dingwall so I was quite far away. I had a game the next day against Ross County so that was what I was focusing on.

“Playing football is the main thing, I was just concentrating on that and letting my agent deal with all that stuff. If anything happened then it happened but nothing did.

“I still keep in touch with some school pals. When I was at school we all used to kick a ball about the playground. Everyone wanted to be a professional footballer and I was one of the lucky ones who managed to actually do it.

“It’s a dream come true to be playing professional football and being away with the Scotland Under 21s.

My pals back home from school and football are really happy for me. They’re in the trades, at college, university, part-time jobs. It’s what I could have been doing if I’d not worked hard at my football. I need to look at where I am now and use that as motivation and make sure I am playing the best I can.

The start of the season I felt I was doing really well then got injured and came back. I think I’ve done alright but not what I was at the start of the season.

But I’m still young and it’s all just a learning curve for me. It’s my first full season so I’m just trying to build on that and get more confidence.”

Ramsay admits he was gutted when Glass was sacked by Aberdeen, but has been impressed with new manager Jim Goodwin.

(SNS Group)

He came off with a head knock during Scotland Under 21’s draw in Kazakhstan, but insists he will be fine for Saturday’s trip to face Dundee despite a gruelling nine hours and 45 minutes flight back from Almaty, followed by a long drive north through the night.

He said: “The new manager has been good. He’s excellent with all the boys and his training sessions have been good.

“It’s hard for me because I liked the last gaffer. As a young boy you don’t want lots of changes.

“You’d rather stick with the same manager but stuff like that happens in football. The new manager has come in and he’s been brilliant with me.

“They’re really high tempo training sessions which I think we need to get to where we want to be.

“We’ve not done as well as we could have this season but we still have two more games before the split and hopefully we can get two big performances.

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“I’ll be fine for the weekend. It was a long journey, but I’m ready to go. When there’s football to be played I’ll be there.”

And Ramsay reckoned the atrocious conditions in Almaty on Tuesday, where torrential rain and sleet caused partial floodlight failure and almost caused the game to be abandoned, was the worst he's ever played in, as the young Scots conceded an equaliser with the last kick of the ball in a 2-2 draw.

He said: "It was definitely the worst conditions I've ever played in. The ball was holding up, but that's no excuse, we should have held on. It was very hard because the ball just wasn't carrying."

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