When Aaron Ramsdale was in the early days of his career, he would often turn to the fans behind him and tell them a joke.

Sometimes a cracker, sometimes not. He was in the lower leagues back then so the supporters were so close to the goal he could almost feel the breath from their laughter. For Ramsdale, it was his way of coping with the pressure of being in the eye of the storm.

Those exchanges with the crowd became a release valve that remained with him ever since. He slid on his knees in front of the Manchester United fans. He joined in with Leicester supporters' chants of 'You're s***, ahhh' after his goal-kicks. He kissed the Arsenal badge in front of Spurs fans after the north London derby, though one of them climbed the hoardings and kicked him in the back.

It was his way, too, of staying focused. Three years ago, he revealed to an astonished Ian Wright how he was unable to keep his mind dialled in from the first whistle to the last. 'To concentrate on a game of football for 90 minutes, I'm finished, I can't do it,' said Ramsdale.

'That's why I get involved with the fans. I sing along with the songs. Someone's giving me abuse, I'll turn around and give it back. I've had my two, three minutes of madness in my head, straight back to the football and I've got 10-15 minutes of pure concentration again.'

Whatever your view of the methodology, it's one that has, until now, kept him in the eye of ever greater, more prominent storms. Five England caps. On the bench at Euro 2020, Euro 2024 and the World Cup in 2022. Arsenal's No 1. Named in the PFA team of the year in 2023 when the Gunners finished second under Mikel Arteta for the first time.

Back in March, while on loan at Newcastle, he stood between the posts in front of nearly 60,000 in the Nou Camp in the last-16 of the Champions League. Five months later, on the Friday night before Southampton began their post-Spygate campaign still in the Championship, Ramsdale strolled out of the tunnel at Eastleigh's Silverlake Stadium for Saints Under 21s and their Premier League Cup opener against Blackburn. The official attendance was 246 and none of them paid to get in.

Ramsdale, who joined from Arsenal in a deal worth up to £25million after Saints' promotion in 2024, has not featured in a single matchday squad for Tonda Eckert this season. It was at Ramsdale's request that he played for the kids. He is now, this once Arsenal record goalkeeper signing and England international whose cumulative transfer fees hit almost £80m, seemingly fourth choice at second-tier Southampton.

Daniel Peretz, who arrived on loan from Bayern Munich last January and joined permanently this summer for around £6m, has been superb. He is now Eckert's No 1 and the Saints boss has made that clear to him. George Long, who also joined on loan while Ramsdale was at Newcastle last season before turning his stay permanent in June, has been told he's Eckert's No 2. Southampton also followed the recent trend of hiring an older third-choice keeper to help mentor the others so Ramsdale also finds himself behind 37-year-old Jamie Jones.

'That group worked really well together last year and this is the way that we will go forward,' said Eckert last week. He likes the unit. He likes the characters.

And that, really, is the nub of the predicament in which Ramsdale – and Saints - now find themselves. Southampton expected Ramsdale would leave in the summer and planned for his departure without really considering the prospect of him staying.

They have, as it stands, made a commitment to a new No 1 and Ramsdale, as he's shown before, is not a goalkeeper content to sit on the bench. Were he wired differently, Ramsdale could well have a Premier League winners' medal now. He was hugely popular at Arsenal among the players and staff, a big personality, and an early catalyst for getting the fans on board with Arteta's revolution.

Ramsdale signed a long-term deal at Arsenal in May 2023 after which he declared he wanted to be their keeper for the next decade. 'I want to be a mainstay at this club and do special things, win trophies and see what this team can do,' he said at the time. 'Hopefully we can stay together for a number of years.'

Three months later they signed David Raya on loan and quickly, despite Arteta's protestations that he had 'no No 1s', took his place. Ramsdale was gutted. His dad said his son 'lost his smile'.

Arsenal's view was that, in Ramsdale, they had, as one insider put it, a 'f***ing good keeper and a great lad'. They just felt they had a better one in Raya. A year later, he was gone.

'If I was sitting on the bench, winning a trophy wouldn't have meant that much to me,' said Ramsdale after his move to Saints. 'I just wanted to play football. As a kid I wanted to play football, not to just sit on a bench.'

Right now, he's not even doing that. The question is whether that will change.

Eckert admitted last week he held 'honest conversations' with Ramsdale over the summer, though it is understood none of them involved telling Ramsdale the door is closed. The two are said to have a good relationship.

Newcastle had the option of signing him after his loan spell last season. The Magpies spent around £4m on the loan fee to bring him in as competition for a faltering Nick Pope, with the view that Ramsdale was better with the ball at his feet, despite it being a figure that raised a few eyebrows among the Newcastle bean counters.

Ramsdale, again, became a much-loved figure among the squad - the stream of messages from his Newcastle team-mates on social media when he announced his return to Saints showed that - but when he got his chance on the pitch, he struggled to seize it.

While the public stance was that Ramsdale's future would be decided at the end of the season, there was a growing feeling internally as the campaign progressed that they would not be activating the option to buy him, especially as it's understood the figure to do so was well above the keeper's current market value.

No other moves materialised. Ramsdale made it clear he was keen to stay at Southampton, where he's a big character in the dressing room, and challenge for his place. His high wages are understood to be 'manageable' thanks to a relegation clause.

Ramsdale had enough of moving around clubs to what would be a fourth new side in three years so he only wanted to do so if the offer was too good to refuse and turned down interest throughout the window, including interest from Scotland, Spain and Germany.

Leeds had him firmly in their sights had their ambitious bid to bring in James Trafford not materialised and, had they failed to do so, would likely have landed him. A potential return to Bournemouth, where he lives, was also floated but the Cherries eventually plumped for Juventus keeper Michele Di Gregorio on loan.

Ramsdale had little interest in a loan move abroad, with Serie A sides like Como and Torino also sniffing around him, after his wife recently gave birth to a baby girl, nor did he want to stay in the Championship, go to a big club as a No 2, or join a struggling Premier League side.

The stick that's often used to beat Ramsdale is that he has already suffered three top-flight relegations with three different teams: Bournemouth, Sheffield United and Southampton. At the first two, he was named player of the season despite the drop.

And yet, despite all the noise, Ramsdale was named in Saints' 25-man squad submitted to the Football League. Perhaps there is a future after all?

He trains with the group and has been more involved in recent weeks. There's also a feeling among those around the club that were Peretz to suffer injury, it's likely Eckert would parachute Ramsdale straight into his place.

Sources close to Ramsdale say the 28-year-old still believes he has a big part to play in getting Southampton back to the Premier League.

It may take time, but Ramsdale believes he'll get his chance. Sources described his current fourth-choice predicament as only 'circumstantial'. Ones, perhaps, he might still be able to change.