Preston North End loanee Calvin Ramsay has returned to Liverpool after a fairly disappointing loan spell – so where did it go wrong?
PNE beat Bristol City 2-0 on Saturday afternoon with Will Keane bagging a second-half brace to secure all three points.
That result is just what Ryan Lowe needed amid major pressure after a torrid run of form.
Lowe is a man down now though as loan right back Calvin Ramsay is heading back to Liverpool, as confirmed today.
Ramsay joined PNE on loan in June and arrived with some hype having cost Liverpool a cool £6.5million just a year earlier.
Sadly, we never really got to see Ramsay shine in a PNE shirt and he is now heading back to Liverpool.
The injury to star Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold is a factor as the Reds need more depth right now, but they probably weren’t too impressed with his lack of game time anyway.
Ramsay now heads back to Anfield after just two competitive appearances for North End and here is where we feel it went wrong for the Scot…
Delayed start
Ramsay signed for PNE on the 13th of June but PNE confirmed that he wouldn’t actually be joining up with North End until the 15th of July.
Ramsay stayed with Liverpool to start his pre-season, meaning he missed the start of North End’s pre-season preparations and the training camp in Spain in early July.
That meant Ramsay was only able to make substitute appearances in pre-season and he clearly wasn’t up to speed with the North End squad as the season started.
North End are at the mercy of the parent club in this situation but Ramsay joining up with the PNE squad just three weeks before the big kick-off left him lagging behind a little.
Early injury
The Championship campaign was only 12 days old when Ramsay suffered an injury setback.
PNE confirmed that Ramsay would miss around six to eight weeks whilst denying that he would be sent back to Liverpool.
A delayed start and an early injury was the absolute nightmare combination for Ramsay, who didn’t make a competitive debut until coming on as a substitute in the 4-0 thrashing at Middlesbrough on the 28th of November.
That meant Ramsay had been out of first-team action for more than three months in a major source of frustration.
Illness strikes but confusion mounts
Ramsay started in the 2-0 home defeat to QPR just days after losing to Boro, filling in for the suspended Brad Potts.
Yet as soon as Potts returned, Ramsay was out of the side again and then came down with an illness early in December, which kept him on the sidelines once more.
That illness turned out to be COVID, which can have a lasting impact, so PNE had to be careful with Ramsay.
It was highlighted by the LEP’s George Hodgson that, come late December, Ramsay was available for selection but simply wasn’t being picked.
Lowe has now indicated that Ramsay has only been available over the last week, suggesting that he wasn’t fit to play once again.
That isn’t what he indicated in late December, suggesting that Ramsay was fit but just wasn’t being picked as midfielders like Alan Browne and Ali McCann can fill in at wing back if needed.
We are certainly sick of that idea; it should have been put to bed within months of Lowe’s reign but here we are again talking about midfielders at wing back.
Liverpool are now taking Ramsay back to Anfield, leaving PNE short of a wing back yet again.
This season has been about as stop-start as it gets for Ramsay and his time at PNE has, sadly, been a huge disappointment.
Lowe thinks highly of Potts as PNE’s first-choice right wing back and he started the season well, but could have maybe done with some rest over the season.
Ramsay either hasn’t been available to step up or just hasn’t been picked, so this loan feels like a waste of time for everybody.
Ramsay clearly has talent but the last 18 months have been a nightmare for him and we can only wish him well in the future.