Former Bolton Wanderers goalkeeping coach Fred Barber revealed how he leant on the connections of former Whites youngster Aaron Ramsdale to help lure an Arsenal youth prospect out on loan.
Barber spent 16 years on the coaching staff with the Whites on the backroom team of firstly under Colin Todd, before working under Sam Allardyce. He was part of the coaching staff which saw the club's rise to playing European football in the mid-2000s.
Arsenal number one Ramsdale spent part of his youth career at Wanderers after being brought to the club by Barber, who spent more than 15 years as Bolton's goalkeeping coach. He was released by the Whites as a teenager due to his size at the time, which has since sprouted to 6ft 3in.
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Barber is now goalkeeping coach at League Two side Crewe Alex where he has been since 2015 and recently returned with the Cheshire club to his former employers in the Papa Johns Trophy. He brought through the likes of Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ali Al-Habsi and Adam Bogdan through to the Bolton first team.
He used his connections at Arsenal in the form of Ramsdale to help bring young stopper Arthur Okonkwo to the Alex. He has started the season as the League Two club's number one goalkeeper.
Barber has spoken of how Ramsdale helped convince Okonkwo to move to Crewe and how his time at Bolton under Barber helped to influence the move. He used the examples of the goalkeepers he coached at Wanderers as evidnce that though they are not the finished article initially, they can progress to being just that.
He told Crewe's YouTube channel: “I spoke to Aaron pre-season. I still keep in touch with his dad, I asked Aaron what he was like and he said he’s a good lad, he wants to learn.
“Arthur had a few clubs after him, I think he had a Championship club, two in the first division, he had Crawley after him, us, Gillingham, but Aaron said with working with Fred and I know for a fact having worked with him since I was 10 up until I was 16, I know for a fact you’ll enjoy him and he will improve you.
“I brought keepers like Jaaskelainen through, Tomasz Kuszczak, Ali Al-Habsi, Adam Bogdan who came to Crewe and had a nightmare but then he ended up playing for Liverpool.
"When you get people like Arthur, you don’t get them when they’re being number one or number two goalkeepers, you get them because they’re coming to us to learn their trade and sometimes you’re going to have some good stuff, bad stuff, inbetween, and I think he’s had everything."
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