Respected by Erik ten Hag and Casemiro - Eric Ramsay has become Manchester United's secret weapon

Casemiro was pleasantly surprised when meeting Manchester United coach Eric Ramsay for the first time at Carrington last year. That's because although Casemiro was unable to speak English, he was greeted by Ramsay, who speaks fluent Spanish.

It's unusual for British coaches to fluently speak another language, but there is a feeling among those who have spent time with Ramsay on his journey to becoming an integral part of Erik ten Hag's coaching staff, that he is not an ordinary coach.

Ramsay was born in Oswestry, a small town close to the Welsh border, and he spent his formative years growing up in Llanfyllin, Wales, but it didn't take long for his attention to turn to coaching due to a professional playing career being deemed unlikely.

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Although the door closed on a professional playing career for Ramsay, he forced another door to open in coaching and his journey in the game has since taken him to Loughborough, Swansea City, Shrewsbury, Chelsea and now Old Trafford.

Professor Chris Cushion met Ramsay for the first time when he was studying for a Sport Science with Management degree at Loughborough and he took the aspiring, ambitious young coach onboard the university football team's staff.

Cushion was the assistant coach at Loughborough, but he was supported by a supremely talented backroom staff of Ramsay, Kieran McKenna, now manager of Ipswich Town, and Matt Prestridge, now first-team coach at Watford.

"Loughborough is a really good place for players, but also coaches and analysts before entering the professional game and part of our role there was to bring in aspiring young coaches to work with the team," Cushion told the Manchester