Did Neil Ardley sign him?
Ardley only ever played him for 60 minutes before subbing him. I think it was clear from the start he was a special talent and surprised to see it mentioned that others thought he was crap.
ISTR that Ardley went 17 games without giving him a start, which - given that RR's been one of the first on the team sheet through Oxford Utd's Championship-promotion season - tells you a lot about Ardley.
Agree. While it was obvious from the start that Ruben had a lot of natural ability, he had plenty of anonymous games in his first season and I don't remember anyone on here saying back then that he should be an automatic starter. He showed promise under Ardley, was better under Burchnall, but only really flourished under Williams. It will be interesting to see how far he can go, I think I put League 1 as his limit.
Ardley didn't knaow how to play Ruben as he didn't suit Ardleys style of footbsll. It wasn't until the possession based style that Birchnall brought in that Ruben fitted.