Ramsey puts friendship with Sherwood aside to keep QPR up

Ramsey is looking for a positive result at Aston Villa

For Chris Ramsey and Tim Sherwood, there is one ideal scenario that could yet play out this season. If Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa both avoid relegation from the Premier League, the two friends will be able to share their regular pint together and bask in mutual success.

Friendship, though, will be put aside on Tuesday night when they meet for a pivotal game at the foot of the division. QPR, resurgent after a fine 4-1 victory at West Bromwich Albion, will go above Villa if they win, with Sherwood’s side having been dragged back into the fight.

It is a twist of fate that Ramsey and Sherwood should meet in such circumstances. Having worked together for many years at Tottenham, and with Sherwood so close to joining Rangers as manager earlier in the season, a year ago neither would have predicted the current scenario.

Ramsey’s task is certainly more challenging than his counterpart’s, and there have already been suggestions that he could join up with Sherwood should his QPR reign end this summer. However, the result at the Hawthorns has provided genuine optimism that a late salvage job can be achieved this year, despite many weeks where hope has appeared forlorn.

“Do I see myself working with Tim in the future? I don’t know, I would say yes but I hope it’s not in the near future,” said Ramsey. “It will be strange because we’ll probably have a pint later in the week. I’m going there as a representative of Queens Park Rangers and I’m sure he will be doing the same as regards Aston Villa. The game really isn’t about me and Tim, it’s about Aston Villa versus Queens Park Rangers.”

Asked what made his partnership with Sherwood so effective, Ramsey added: “I think we are quite measured in how we bounce off each other. So as much as we appear to be bad cop and bad cop, I’m not really that bad a cop with the players. I haven’t given out that many real rollickings since I’ve been here.

“I don’t know why we work so well together. It’s more the fact that he knows that if I don’t agree with something that he’s put forward, then I’m going to give him an opinion that may be different. Sometimes he’ll take it and sometimes he won’t, but you can’t have yes man around you.”

He added: “Considering we worked together for four-five years before, there is going to be some sort of strange feeling. But Tim’s Tim, he’s the manager of another team. I block that out of my head. We’re going to play on the front foot, that’s how I am and that’s what we’ll do.”

Before Saturday’s victory, Ramsey’s tenure at QPR had provided only one league win. Given that he was not Tony Fernandes’ first-choice replacement for Harry Redknapp in February, questions regarding his future security have already been raised.

Yet three points at Villa Park would drag Rangers out of the bottom three and above their opponents, something Ramsey described as a potentially significant boost for his side. Eduardo Vargas is out for the rest of the season for Rangers having sustained a knee injury at the Hawthorns, while the South Korean defender Yun Suk-young will also miss out after a head injury against West Bromwich.

“That would be a fantastic boost for us because it would see us above the line,” said Ramsey. “It would give the fans a lot of hope that we have a chance of staying up and obviously it will give us a lot of hope for the game against Chelsea on Sunday. We’re just looking to get a positive result tomorrow.

“Tim’s very good at what he does and he’s got some good people around him, Tony Parks, Mark Robson, people that can help him. I’m sure that he will keep them up and I’m sure he’ll do well for them in the future. What I’m looking at from our point of view is that he keeps them up and we keep ourselves up, and that we are able to play them in the Premier League next season.”


By James Riach / Echo