FOR Aaron Ramsey, the opportunity to play for Michael Carrick was a "massive draw" and yet the Aston Villa forward was surprised when he first met the Middlesbrough head coach.

Given all that Carrick achieved in the game as a player, Ramsey perhaps had a vision in his mind as to what he expected from the Boro boss. And yet from just one meeting with Carrick, Ramsey was struck by how calm his new manager was - a word that has been used to describe Boro's chief again and again since his appointment at the end of last year.

“He was a massive draw," admitted Ramsey of Carrick's influence in him heading for Teesside on loan on the final day of the January transfer window.

"He had a massive career and yet, when I spoke to him, the way he came across was very surprising. He was quite calm and I’m just really looking forward to working with him now."

Carrick wasn't the sole reason Ramsey headed for Boro. He believes he fits with the playing style on Teesside and says he has the same ambitions as the club.

“I think this club wants to be going to the Premier League and so do I, so hopefully I can help them out with that," said the 20-year-old.

"This is an attacking team and I’m an attacking midfielder, so that was a big reason why I chose this club. It will be tough [to break in] because we’re flying at the moment. But we all have the same goal of getting this club back to the Premier League and hopefully we can all play our part in doing that.

"There’s plenty of games still to play, and it’s tight in the Championship, as everyone knows. But we’ll focus on ourselves and we’ll see what happens."

Ramsey was greeted by a couple of familiar faces at Rockliffe when he arrived last week. As well as former Aston Villa coach Aaron Danks, there was current Villa teammate Cameron Archer. He spoke to both before finalising his Boro switch.

He told the club website: “I spoke with Danksy about coming and then I rang Cam straight away after.

"He’s obviously been here a few weeks so I wanted to know what it was like. He was like, ‘yeah, 100% you should come up. It’s a great place and the lads are great.’

"I got here and he was right, the lads have been perfect with me since I got here and it makes it easier to settle in and focus on your football when the lads are like that. They make it easy for you."

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Ramsey spent the first half of the season on loan at Norwich City but hasn't played since mid-November due to injury and had knee surgery in December. He is back in training now, though, and will soon be ready to make his Boro debut.

He said: “The injury was frustrating, but, of course, these things happen in football. Injuries will happen. But I’m back training now, and hopefully it won’t be too long until I’m back playing on the pitch."

Ironically, Ramsey's last game came against Boro, in Norwich's 2-1 defeat to Carrick's side at Carrow Road.

“I don’t want to say too much, but I was very impressed," he says.

"It was a very tough game - one of the hardest oppositions I’d come up against this season while at Norwich. I couldn’t get near the lads in midfield, and I spoke to them about it yesterday and we were having a laugh about that. But yeah, they were very good that day, and now I’m here - it’s crazy, isn’t it?"