Nations League: Iceland v Wales
Venue: Laugardalsvollur, Reykjavik Date: Friday, 11 October Kick-off: 19:45 BST
Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Sounds; live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app
Aaron Ramsey has been tipped to become a manager “at a high level” in the future by Wales boss Craig Bellamy, but says speculation linking the player with the vacant Cardiff City post is premature.
Last month the Cardiff midfielder was ruled out for at least two months with a hamstring injury sustained after coming on as a substitute during Wales’ 2-1 Nations League win in Montenegro.
The 33-year-old, capped 86 times, will now miss Wales’ Nations League games away to Iceland on Friday and home to Montenegro next Monday.
“I definitely see that part of him [management]… I believe it’s starting to circle, because it does later on in your career,” Bellamy said.
“I’m quietly confident he will, I’m quietly confident he will see that part of the game for him.
“With his experiences and his knowledge, his understanding of the game, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t at a high level.”
Cardiff are currently seeking a 12th permanent manager in 14 years, having sacked Erol Bulut last month following the worst start to a season in the club’s history.
Omer Riza is currently interim coach, having led the Bluebirds to their first Championship win of the season at the eighth attempt, beating Millwall 1-0 last week before a 1-1 draw with Bristol City on Sunday.
Riza has said he wants the job on a permanent basis, although Ramsey is one of a number of other names who have been linked with the role.
But Bellamy dismissed suggestions that Ramsey – who already has his Uefa A licence, one below the Pro licence needed to work at the highest levels – could be a candidate to take over the Bluebirds as a player-coach.
“I don’t see that at the moment [for Ramsey], no,” Bellamy said.
“I saw Vinny [Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany] do that at Anderlecht [where Bellamy was the Belgian club’s under-21 coach] and it was really difficult.
“That was the first time I’ve seen it close up, I’ve not been exposed to that playing-wise. I would probably not recommend it, just my experience with Vinny doing it at Anderlecht.
“I felt that he felt it was going to be one or the other – he was going to carry on playing or he was going to be a manager, and then he chose the manager route.
“So yeah, I believe that’s a difficult one.”
Bellamy said that he often involves Ramsey in Wales’ off-field preparations and has seen that potential – not just first hand in sessions at the Wales National Football Development Centre in Newport, but ever since Ramsey was young.
“I speak to Aaron quite a lot, I try and involve him a lot in tactically what we look to do,” Bellamy said.
“He comes down to Dragon Park as well to see me quite a bit, so we go through certain stuff. I definitely have a very good relationship with Aaron.
“By knowing his father from the same area, I knew Aaron since he was five; I knew this kid was going to be a professional footballer at the age of five, which is very rare by the way.
“So it allows us to have that good communication.
“I’m really disappointed for him that he picked up an injury, because especially the game against Turkey [Bellamy’s first game in charge, a goalless Nations League encounter in Cardiff] he was exceptional.
“He did everything we asked him to do, the role he played, the chances we created, a lot came from Aaron.
“But he won’t miss too much… I believe he will be with the camp as well during this period, so that’s helpful because it’s another set of information we want to try and feed into over a 10-day period.”
