Aaron Ramsey: Cardiff City caretaker boss’ hope in the relegation gloom

For Ramsey, still registered as a player and with no coaching experience, there was a chance to enhance his hero status by inspiring an improbable escape act.

And despite the high stakes, it was relatively risk-free for his reputation because too much damage had already been done to lay any of the blame for relegation on him.

As for Tan, chairman Mehmet Dalman and chief executive Ken Choo, things could not get much worse.

The final stages of previous manager Omer Riza’s reign had deepened the wounds that have hurt this club in recent years, particularly its ever-worsening disconnect with its supporters.

So as glib as it sounds, the guiding principle for Ramsey’s appointment was simply: Why not?

Cardiff could only improve on the dismal end to Riza’s tenure, and that is precisely what they did under Ramsey.

With only a day to prepare for the Oxford game, he had assembled a new coaching team and instilled in his side an intensity and purpose that had been lacking under his predecessor.

A conversation with Wales manager Craig Bellamy helped. Former team-mates for club and country, the two men view football the same way, and Bellamy’s influence was clear not only in the way Ramsey had set up his team but in the way he talked about the game afterwards.

“I spoke to Bellers (Craig Bellamy) quite a bit. He’s helped me out quite a lot in that 24, 48 hours,” Ramsey said.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to work on tactical things, so I didn’t want to overload the players with too much information.

“We had a day to do that. We had to take in a bit from meetings, but it was more about trying to get your principles across and habits.”

In such a short space of time, some familiarity can be useful. Ramsey needed to lean on people he could trust as well as those he rated.

He brought in his great friend and former Wales team-mate Chris Gunter alongside Cardiff club captain Joe Ralls – like Ramsey, currently out injured – and Wales’ Ryland Morgans as his assistant coaches.

As kick-off approached, it was Gunter who Ramsey turned to for a hug and some words of encouragement.

Having come through the youth ranks at Cardiff, Ramsey and Gunter had been inseparable as Wales room-mates and north London neighbours with the former’s move to Arsenal coming just a few months after the latter’s transfer to Tottenham Hotspur.

Now they were reunited in the dugout, responsible for the team they supported as boys.