There appears to be a number of Manchester United fans who are already dismissing the transfer of Ashley Young from Aston Villa as an expensive waste of money. One even went as far as to publicly declare on a club forum that “Here we have another underwhelming signing” – is he? Not if you listen to the opinions of his new and former team mates. Even the now retired United great Denis Irwin has welcomed the addition of Young to Sir Alex Fergusons squad predicting that the England international will become a real success at Old Trafford.
“I think it’s a great signing and I expect him to be a really good player for us” the treble winner told ManUtd.com. “He’s got good ability and is a real threat from set pieces which is something we’ve been missing in the last couple of years. He can play anywhere behind the front man and his delivery into the box is fantastic. He’s got a real eye for goal too and given the opportunity, I think he’ll chip in with a few goals next season.”
Irwin can also see a few more new faces before the transfer window closes. “The fact we’ve lost Nev, Scholesy, Edwin and Owen Hargreaves meant we needed to bring some players in because you need a big squad to be able to challenge for the top prizes. Phil Jones and Ashley Young are really good acquisitions and I’m sure both will do well. I think there will be a lot of money spent in the next couple of months by a lot of teams and I wouldn’t be surprised to see us bring in a couple more players.”
Villa midfielder Fabian Delph also paid a glowing tribute to his former colleague when he told the Birmingham Mail that “The men he left behind will miss him not just for his pace and skill, but also his work rate. But it happens all the time, it’s football. People come and go and you have just got to deal with it and just keep going.”
“I don’t think he could be replaced to be honest with you” he continued “his all round work ethic was absolutely unbelievable. He must have run twice as much as most people on the pitch. With his goals and assists it will be very hard to replace him – but if we can get somebody here half as good as him, then he would still be a great player.”
Delph insists that “You get a lot of players who are not selfish but do more of their work in the attacking half of the pitch, whereas Youngy is up and down, when he’s on the right hand side especially, working hard for the boys. The lads appreciate that from a winger who has flair but still wants to graft.”
United defender Rio Ferdinand welcomed the arrival of England team mate Young “Another top, hungry and young player joins the ranks” he stated on Twitter while Michael Owen wrote on the social networking site “Great to hear the Ashley Young deal has been finalised. Great addition to the squad.”
So what do you think? Will Young prove to be “another underwhelming signing” by Sir Alex? Only time will tell. Personally I will trust Fergusons judgement each and every time. Yes, he has made mistakes in the past but he’s also shown for a quarter of a century that he gets it right far more often than not.
Do you expect Young to be a good acquisition for United?
I don’t think it’s whether he’s a good player or not, he is definitely a brilliant winger, but the one we need? Maybe not, but I trust Fergie to get things more or less right
Great signing by SAF,the lad can play and no mistake,how anybody can critise him when weve got the likes of Anderson is beyond me.The lad can cross, shoot, pass, dribble and play as a striker!put it this way, the bitters and scouse were lurking about, but he chose the Champions instead, that speaks volumnes folks!
Villa fan here. We’re obviously sorry to see Ash go, a great player and a great servant to our club. But most of us don’t begrudge him the desire to go and play CL footie which we can’t offer him. I reckon he’ll tear your place up, scores a few, provides a lot of assists, great at set pieces, accurate long range passing and a great engine. He’ll do good at United.
Glad to see your confidence in Young mate. Pity that some United fans don’t share it.
I am sure Ashley Young is a talented and hardworking footballer. My worries are less to do with who we sign and more to do with our (as well as most English players’) lack of technical and ball retention skills. That is what needs to be addressed urgently at United if we truly want to win CL trophies consistently. This philosophy of fast pace football, while exciting for us fans, and long balls, has got to change if United and England are going to catch up with the likes of the Spaniards and the Germans (did you see Mueller, Ozil, Khedira, etc at the World Cup?) at the highest levels of football.
Most probably do not know this but Liverpool made a very smart move recently to bring in two youth team coaches from Barcelona. These are the same coaches that worked with the likes of Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets, and Messi when they were in the Barca youth team. If they manage to do what they did at Barca, we could be seeing future Liverpool players play football the right way in about 4-5 years time.
United and SAF must address the core reasons for our inability to match Barca tactically and skills wise. Else, it will not matter who else we sign during this summer, the next, or any other for that matter in the seasons ahead. We WILL continue to fail against tactically superior opponents and keep having to rely on our so-called never say die attitude (ala 1999) and luck (2008).
A Villa fan. Will watch this one with interest. Its only been this last season he’s really hit some form. Before that all I remember is being fed up with the guy. Predictable and inconsistent.
Your only saving grace is SAF and your coaches. I hope he does well. He’s a great player in the making and from an England point of view he couldn’t be with a better coaching staff.
I remember Dwight Yorke being an “up to 20” goal a year man. You got him and he topped 30.
I think Young has plenty to prove still – even at his age there is plenty he can add to his game especially consistency as Terry said but Pete K hit the nail on the head – it’s not so much the players but how they play. To play this style of possession football you need good players but they need to be learning this from knee-high. The frenetic gung-ho PL style is great to watch but maybe football is changing and we need to adopt new methods to stay competitive.