Crossword Genius

I am a gruff bleeding northern guttersnipe (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ragamuffin

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'guttersnipe' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'i am a gruff bleeding northern' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is located in the answer.
'am' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'gruff' is 'rguff' which is within the remaining letters.
'northern' could be 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland) and 'n' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'i' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ragamuffin that I've seen before include "street Arab" , "One got up badly" , "Guttersnipe" , "Tatterdemalion" , "little scruff" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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