As a youngster growing up in Western Australia, a Premier League football club seemed a world away for Chris Ramsey. Fast forward to 2023 and the Under-18 goalkeeping coach finds himself helping re-build Brentford’s Academy.

The 37-year-old’s love of football runs in the family, his grandad Robert a Newcastle United first-team player from 1948 to 1951. Despite the connection, it wasn’t until Ramsey moved to the UK in 2009 that the possibilities within football became apparent.

“Being Aussie and growing up basically with football being the fifth most popular sport… football wasn’t really on the radar for many people,” says Ramsey.

“It’s so far from this kind of system of academies and professionalism that it was never a thought that I could play professionally or coach professionally.

“My journey into coaching started when I moved up to Newcastle - my dad’s from Newcastle, my grandad played for Newcastle.

“I worked at a backpackers hostel actually in the middle of town, right near St James’ Park. I was playing up there, playing for a famous club called Wallsend Boys Club, which is where a lot of the Newcastle legends came through.

“Through that I realised I could do coaching badges. I did my level one up there and then after about eight months in Newcastle I moved back to London and got the level two.”

Ramsey plied his trade at multiple clubs around London as a player following his stint at Wallsend Boys Club, following some encouragement from expats back in Australia while he played in what was then known as the Western Australia Premier League, the level below what is now the A-League.

“Loads of expats played in those teams and I’d spoken to a couple of guys that had played conference over here and they thought that I could possibly play conference,” Ramsey continues.

“I played for Tooting and Mitcham for a little while; I was at East Thurrock for a pre-season while they were conference south, but scattered in between all these little stints I had loads of ankle injuries.

“That was kind of the moment where I really thought actually maybe I’ll get the level two and start thinking more about coaching.”

Ramsey started to climb the coaching ranks, getting his foot in the door at Chelsea Foundation, running after school clubs and summer camps.

Robert Ramsey (left) playing golf with Newcastle legend Jackie Milburn (middle)

He worked his way into a goalkeeping development centre, working with Chelsea’s Academy keepers, before eventually becoming a member of staff, working with their Under-11s and U12s part-time.

Fulham was next, Ramsey stepping up to the U13-U16 level, before taking on his current role at Jersey Road.

“I felt like the next step was to be full-time in any capacity and have more ability to influence the boys that I work with,” he says.

“I didn’t actually know too much about Brentford’s rebuilding at the time, but I got really lucky, I guess, because it’s exactly what I wanted and it’s the perfect job for me.”

Ramsey has teamed up with U18s head coach Lydia Bedford and assistant coach Jon-Paul Pittman; the trio tasked with leading the first crop of players based at the Robert Rowan Performance Centre since the re-introduction of the Brentford Academy.

They have been together over seven months now and Ramsey highlights their similar beliefs in philosophy and methodology as something that has helped them get a running start in their new roles.

“I didn’t know them at all, but as soon as I saw that they were announced, I looked them up and looked at their coaching journeys as well and they’re exactly what you’d expect from seeing their CVs - I think they’re both fantastic coaches and fantastic people,” Ramsey says.

“I felt like during the interview process that the culture of the people who were interviewing me was so good that I knew first day with JP and Lydia that they were going to be of a similar culture to myself.

“I felt like after a week that we’d been handpicked to be together as a trio, I feel like we’re all so alike in our philosophy and methodology. It’s been such a good partnership, a good team.”

Asked to describe his coaching style, Ramsey says he views his role as a partnership with U18 goalkeepers Connor Wolfheimer and Evan Anderson.

“I guess my coaching style reflects the fact that I wasn’t a big time professional or anything like that,” he says.

“Because I can’t show them clips of me playing in the Premier League, I have to come at it from a different angle and my angle is that I have studied the game as much as I possibly can and I try to have a scientific sort of approach to it.

“I’d like to think of it like a partnership where I’m there saying ‘I’ll do the research and the study for you and I’ll make a session for you, but now you guys take that and you go and do it’.

“I’ll do as much as I can on the peripheries and we’ll work together with the type of goalkeeper you want to be and the type of goalkeeper that I think you can be and we’ll find this middle ground of where it all comes together.”