Ashley Young

Ashley Young is out of contract next summer(2012), so it is most likely he will be sold this summer by Aston Villa.

But where do you think he will end up playing next season?

What would be the best club for him? He wouldnt want to move to a big club and then find himself on the bench and his career stall.

Is he good enough to hold down a starting role for a top 4/5 Premiership team or is a club like Aston Villa his level?

He would fit nicely at MU, with Ferguson prefering versatile wingers, who can switch flanks, or just play behind lone striker (Nani, Ronaldo and to some extent Park, mostly for defensive reasons).

Yeah, I'm resigned to him going and suspect Utd will be his destination. Seems between them and Liver according to rumours. He'd do well at either. More competition for his position at Utd (Nani, Valencia, Park) but I think he'd establish himself there and it'd suit his style.

He's going to be attractive to any of top 6, for number of reasons:
-proven end product
-pace
-rarely injured
-English (for the quotas!)
-versatile
-hard-working
-prime age

Doesn't have the vision or dribbling skills to be world class, and could do with adding more goals to his game, but he's a very good PL player.

Having said all that, I thought Milner would do well at City and that's been utterly wrong..

If United were seriously in for him then I'd imagine he'd rather move there than to us for what they can offer him that we currently can't.

I've said it before but I think we can do better. He would be great for Caroll certainly but would cost around 18 million and IMO that's money that would be better spent elsewhere. N'Zogbia for example would be cheaper and would do a great job.

We can all dream though I guess:

Unfortunately I think Mata will cost you a bit more than 18 mill

You can have Jeffren for 15 !

Luis wrote:If United were seriously in for him then I'd imagine he'd rather move there than to us for what they can offer him that we currently can't.

I've said it before but I think we can do better. He would be great for Caroll certainly but would cost around 18 million and IMO that's money that would be better spent elsewhere. N'Zogbia for example would be cheaper and would do a great job.

We can all dream though I guess:

Seriously? He even isn't a winger anymore... Having Carroll (not mentioning Meireles and Stevie G supporting him from Centre Midfield) would take Ashley Young over him anyday. Unless you want to go 4-3-3- with Suarez and Mata as a wide forwards, but would have my doubts about that working well.

stinger wrote:

Luis wrote:If United were seriously in for him then I'd imagine he'd rather move there than to us for what they can offer him that we currently can't.

I've said it before but I think we can do better. He would be great for Caroll certainly but would cost around 18 million and IMO that's money that would be better spent elsewhere. N'Zogbia for example would be cheaper and would do a great job.

We can all dream though I guess:

Seriously? He even isn't a winger anymore... Having Carroll (not mentioning Meireles and Stevie G supporting him from Centre Midfield) would take Ashley Young over him anyday. Unless you want to go 4-3-3- with Suarez and Mata as a wide forwards, but would have my doubts about that working well.

You'd take Ashley Young over Mata? each to their own but I think you're mental.

Mata has been superb this season and at the weekend was responsible for most of Soldado's goals. He looked to me like he played in a similar position to Iniesta in that he picks the ball up in the centre of midfield then drifts out wide and whips in a perfect ball most of the time. He's a few years younger than Young too and his final ball has far more quality.

We've been going 4-3-3 under Kenny since Caroll and Suarez came into the side, If we had

---------Suarez--------------------------------------Mata

--------------------------Caroll---------------------------

It would be immense.

As I said it's only a dream anyway. There's little to no chance we could sign him at the moment as the top players in Europe want to be playing Champions league football.

Luis wrote:

stinger wrote:

Luis wrote:If United were seriously in for him then I'd imagine he'd rather move there than to us for what they can offer him that we currently can't.

I've said it before but I think we can do better. He would be great for Caroll certainly but would cost around 18 million and IMO that's money that would be better spent elsewhere. N'Zogbia for example would be cheaper and would do a great job.

We can all dream though I guess:

Seriously? He even isn't a winger anymore... Having Carroll (not mentioning Meireles and Stevie G supporting him from Centre Midfield) would take Ashley Young over him anyday. Unless you want to go 4-3-3- with Suarez and Mata as a wide forwards, but would have my doubts about that working well.

You'd take Ashley Young over Mata? each to their own but I think you're mental.

Mata has been superb this season and at the weekend was responsible for most of Soldado's goals. He looked to me like he played in a similar position to Iniesta in that he picks the ball up in the centre of midfield then drifts out wide and whips in a perfect ball most of the time. He's a few years younger than Young too and his final ball has far more quality.

We've been going 4-3-3 under Kenny since Caroll and Suarez came into the side, If we had

---------Suarez--------------------------------------Mata

--------------------------Caroll---------------------------

It would be immense.

As I said it's only a dream anyway. There's little to no chance we could sign him at the moment as the top players in Europe want to be playing Champions league football.

Based on what you need, yes I would. You will have Suarez who will be playing quite narrow and close to Carroll, you would do well with other wide forward staying closer to the line. Mata this season most of the times is playing in old Silva position (AM in 4-2-3-1), just like with Silva I have my doubts about him doing well as a classic winger in Premier League.

I didn't see goals from last weeekend though.

Mata shits on Young from a great height. Think we'll bid for Charlie boy again

All but confirmed to United then, as predicted. Fee somewhere between 16-20m, depending who you believe.

Sad to see him go, it will be strange to see him in United shirt & it leaves a big gap to fill at Villa. I'm kinda happier he's gone there rather than Liver or Spurs. Gets to play CL & not strengthen the sides we have realistic hope of catching.

New manager is gonna have a lot of rebuilding to do.

i dont get it, maybe its an improvement to valencia, but hes not worth this amount of money for this little improvement

his stats shocking for an winger or whatever he is, and hes already 26

In what way are his stats shocking? Granted, he should score a few more but 8 goals a season ain't terrible when he's mostly played wide. Consistently provides assists; by my reckoning only Fabregas has more PL assists over the last 4 years and he's playing for Villa rather than Man Utd/Arsenal/Chelsea, i.e. he's had to rely on Carew/Heskey/Agbonlahor to finish his set-ups, not Drogba/Rooney/Van Persie/whoever.

And being about to turn 26 is not old ffs, you're too obsessed with German children!

Kroos wrote:i dont get it, maybe its an improvement to valencia, but hes not worth this amount of money for this little improvement

his stats shocking for an winger or whatever he is, and hes already 26

2007/2008: goals 8 assists 17
2008/2009: goals 8 assists 10
2009/2010: goals 9 assists 13
2010/2011: goals 9 assists 15

Last 2 England games: Goals 2 Assists 2

Please explain on what bizarre planet are these stats "shocking"?

in 5 seasons in the Premier League, only in his first did he notch up less than double figure assists. He is regularly at the top of the league's most prolific assist makers, and clearly one the best wingers in the league; and has been for some years now.

Kroos, if you were a scout you would have been sacked years ago

i dont know where your stats from, mine are completely different (transfermarkt.de)

10/11: 7 goals 8 assists
09/10: 5 goals 10 assists

but i agree it seems hes a consistent guy, not world class but a fine epl player, ferguson is brilliant in making players better

edit: ok i got it, i have only the epl stats, i think you have the stats from all games he played


i watched the valencia stats, i have to say, young is a big improvement to valencia when i look at the last seasons (ok i think valencia had a long injury as well)

We've had this already, Young is an underwhelming and even in some ways depressing signing (especially at £20m), it's not a desperately controversial comment.

debaser wrote:In what way are his stats shocking? Granted, he should score a few more but 8 goals a season ain't terrible when he's mostly played wide. Consistently provides assists; by my reckoning only Fabregas has more PL assists over the last 4 years and he's playing for Villa rather than Man Utd/Arsenal/Chelsea, i.e. he's had to rely on Carew/Heskey/Agbonlahor to finish his set-ups, not Drogba/Rooney/Van Persie/whoever.

And being about to turn 26 is not old ffs, you're too obsessed with German children!

well really young players have more potential for improvements

i am just surprised, since a long time MANU bought players for really big money, and i dont see world class players

why not invest this money in 1 player (snjeider, modric), i mean its MANU, the biggest club in england

You don't need a team full of world class players. The money's a bit steep, but I think Young suits ManYoo better than, say, Nasri who would also be overpriced on a short contract and has been heavily linked to them.

Though if this deal does happen, and Man Utd still have to buy a keeper and at least one CM, then they'd better hurry up and ship some of the deadwood over to Steve Bruce for double what they are worth, or this is going to be a very expensive summer for them.

Because they are Manchester United. They could sign Emile Heskey and still win the league, their 'bread & butter' competition.

SAF knows what he needs Young for, his signings usually have to be seen in the team context. United are one of those very few teams where the sum is much greater than its parts, where player-to-player comparisons make even less sense than elsewhere. On paper, they could have never won the league and make the CL final with that midfield of theirs. But that's just on paper. SAF makes the difference.

Allez les rouges wrote:We've had this already, Young is an underwhelming and even in some ways depressing signing (especially at £20m), it's not a desperately controversial comment.

Had what already? Kroos claiming his stats are shocking, when they're clearly anything but?

Honestly, underwhelming and depressing? I don't know what you're smoking, I really don't. We're not talking about a steady clogger here, Young is a proven, exciting attacking player - if he'd have signed for Spurs I would have been ecstatic.

20million is excessive, but I'd be more underwhelmed if I were a Liverpool fan knowing they'd paid that much for Henderson who has yet to have shown he's anything more than a decentish, steady central midfielder.

if he'd have signed for Spurs I would have been ecstatic

Isn't this rather the point? I look forward to seeing your lot with Lampard and Joe Cole next year...

I didn't dispute that he's a much better signing than Henderson (jesus). I know he's no mug, he's run my own team ragged enough times. Depressing, because in a nutshell he's good but not great, admittedly not really my Tasse Tee as a player, precisely the kind of player who will probably hactually improve their PL challenge but not really make the difference against the very top teams particularly in Europe – but more than that, because of the point you yourself made, that this is a classic case of hoovering up the best domestic talent (such as it is) and weakening (in order to weaken) the domestic opposition.

Manchester United sign Ashley Young for TWENTY SHITTING MILLION OF YOUR ENGLISH SQUID, it's really not hard to see where I'm coming from when I call this underwhelming and depressing is it. Mesut cost €15m wasn't it?

Come off it, it really is allowed to stick your neck out on occasion, to be a little more honest and less diplomatic and insistent on taking the line of least resistance.

Werder sold Ozil cheap. Dunno why. Each transfer has its own circumstance. Were they broke or did he have a clause? Should've been able to milk Real Madrid. If Man Utd had joined in and started an auction, maybe would've cost a lot more?

This seems a pretty weird one to get so up-in-arms about the fee. This is not a price tag that is breaking new ground for excess, as you could argue with Carroll, Henderson, Milner, Lescott or various others.

The fee is only part of it 'baserlein. I would have thought the contract situation etc. pretty comparable to the Özil one, check with Blut. Yes extraordinary in a way that they couldn't get more but that never seemed on the cards. Inflated prices over here...

By the way I'm not hactually up in arms, just offering my view such as it is, maybe making my views seem stronger than they are

Be realistic, am I likely to be charitable about your typical United signing...

Özil had only one year left on his contract. The transfer fee was €15m plus €3m in bonuses, €18m in total. Still way too cheap for a player of his quality, but what can you do when a player (or his agent rather) has decided to move?

English players are ridiculously overpriced either way though, and it's not to the benefit of English football.

Allez les rouges wrote:if he'd have signed for Spurs I would have been ecstatic

Isn't this rather the point? I look forward to seeing your lot with Lampard and Joe Cole next year...

I didn't dispute that he's a much better signing than Henderson (jesus). I know he's no mug, he's run my own team ragged enough times. Depressing, because in a nutshell he's good but not great, admittedly not really my Tasse Tee as a player, precisely the kind of player who will probably hactually improve their PL challenge but not really make the difference against the very top teams particularly in Europe – but more than that, because of the point you yourself made, that this is a classic case of hoovering up the best domestic talent (such as it is) and weakening (in order to weaken) the domestic opposition.

Manchester United sign Ashley Young for TWENTY SHITTING MILLION OF YOUR ENGLISH SQUID, it's really not hard to see where I'm coming from when I call this underwhelming and depressing is it. Mesut cost €15m wasn't it?

Come off it, it really is allowed to stick your neck out on occasion, to be a little more honest and less diplomatic and insistent on taking the line of least resistance.

?? Would I have been esctatic if Cole or Lampard signed for us? No. So what is the relevance here with Young?

As for Ozil moving for 15million Euros - Bremen clearly needed to work on their negotiation skills. He should have gone for much more, and says everything there is to know about the Bundesliga's ability to market their own product. Madrid were hardly paupers, so it takes a monumentally poor effort to have let them sign Ozil for that amount of money.

I honestly don't see what the big issue is here, to me it seems a clever move by United; they get a player who will, unless falls out of form or favour, remain with United for the rest of his career. Perhaps something there for Mr Wenger to learn.

He also seems to have the right attitude and mentality as proven by his continual year-on-year improvement; and Blut is spot on here - Man United have never been a team built on 11 stars/egos. Although already aclimitised to the Premier League, to say he has nothing to offer in closing the gap on the "big" clubs doesn't even give him the benefit of showing what he can do at CL level. I believe he can offer United a lot in Europe. We'll just have to see which of us is wrong on this

Yeah, by all means feel free to disagree and go against the grain. It's why these debates exist, so hardly precious about it

I for one find a lot more plausible to pay 20m for Ashley Young than to pay 12m for Royston f*cking Drenthe who had played all of a dozen first team games with Feyenoord. All of the transfer fees these days are grossly inflated (sorry guys) so it seems a bit silly to pick on Young.

Noah und der Bale wrote:

Allez les rouges wrote:if he'd have signed for Spurs I would have been ecstatic

Isn't this rather the point? I look forward to seeing your lot with Lampard and Joe Cole next year...

I didn't dispute that he's a much better signing than Henderson (jesus). I know he's no mug, he's run my own team ragged enough times. Depressing, because in a nutshell he's good but not great, admittedly not really my Tasse Tee as a player, precisely the kind of player who will probably hactually improve their PL challenge but not really make the difference against the very top teams particularly in Europe – but more than that, because of the point you yourself made, that this is a classic case of hoovering up the best domestic talent (such as it is) and weakening (in order to weaken) the domestic opposition.

Manchester United sign Ashley Young for TWENTY SHITTING MILLION OF YOUR ENGLISH SQUID, it's really not hard to see where I'm coming from when I call this underwhelming and depressing is it. Mesut cost €15m wasn't it?

Come off it, it really is allowed to stick your neck out on occasion, to be a little more honest and less diplomatic and insistent on taking the line of least resistance.

?? Would I have been esctatic if Cole or Lampard signed for us? No. So what is the relevance here with Young?

As for Ozil moving for 15million Euros - Bremen clearly needed to work on their negotiation skills. He should have gone for much more, and says everything there is to know about the Bundesliga's ability to market their own product. Madrid were hardly paupers, so it takes a monumentally poor effort to have let them sign Ozil for that amount of money.

I honestly don't see what the big issue is here, to me it seems a clever move by United; they get a player who will, unless falls out of form or favour, remain with United for the rest of his career. Perhaps something there for Mr Wenger to learn.

He also seems to have the right attitude and mentality as proven by his continual year-on-year improvement; and Blut is spot on here - Man United have never been a team built on 11 stars/egos. Although already aclimitised to the Premier League, to say he has nothing to offer in closing the gap on the "big" clubs doesn't even give him the benefit of showing what he can do at CL level. I believe he can offer United a lot in Europe. We'll just have to see which of us is wrong on this

Yeah, by all means feel free to disagree and go against the grain. It's why these debates exist, so hardly precious about it

Sorry bernd, I missed out Scotty Parker too

I'd like to think that Werder could have got (much) more but that never seemed an option, same with others such as Klose in the past. Blut etc may be able to explain better, it's not just a question of "poor marketing", it's in the UK, for English players in particular, that the market is distorted.

It's nice to see that you're so tolerant and hunkydory about United's approach in the transfer market, but you have a bit of a soft spot for them I guess. I don't think there's anything admirable about the (traditional) Bayern approach.

Well, if you were to ask me which approach made more sense in the transfer market - Man United's or Arsenal's, it's a no brainer: Arsenal scoffing at EPL fees and trying to constantly buy on the cheap from abroad has got them exactly what they deserve - nowt.

I don't LIKE Man United's policy, as they - like Bayern - like to nick all the best talent in the league, but firstly they pay good money for it (so the money remains in the league) and secondly, we don't have to deal with endless boring "will he or won't he?" Fabregas-esque "dramas" when Wenger's cheapo foreign signings realise they could play for a better club for more money back at home

people still don't understand that there is a premium on English and proven Premiership players

It doesn't mean that they are necessarily better than your cheaper foreign based players, it means that they are proven in English football, it means that they are much less of an unknown quantity, that they almost certainly speak the language and in most cases will be 'home-grown' or 'association-grown'. The prize money in the league is so high that clubs can demand more for these players than perhaps foreign sides could, it's all about context.

So continually preaching that Man Utd could have signed a better player for far less from overseas is entirely moot. Plenty of better players than Ashley Young have failed in this league. I'm sure he'll prove better value for money than Verson, Shevchenko, Marlet, Robinho, Kleberson, Manucho, Anderson, Forlan, Reyes, Savio Nsereko and co.

I won't get sucked into a silly debate on "ooh the johnny foreigners will never show true loyalty unlike boys like Ashley who will happily see out the prime of his career with the c**ts" (and why is it that he will never consider going abroad, me wonders?), it really is very childish as well as bollocks.

I'm talking to a brick wall here a bit, I think it's me not you. You will think this irrelevant and maybe I'm biased, probably spent too much time last night watching the BBC "analysis" of the Germany-England game from last year and Hansen's confident pre-match predictions of "England have the better players, if they play as they can, they'll win" and analysis of the fragile German defence to the exclusion of so much else that was obvious; maybe I'm still reeling from the moment after the game when Lee Dixon finally said something which, if not a searing insight, felt like a moment of profound truth in the context when he paused and said "but thinking about it, we talk about playing Gerrard 'in the hole' behind Rooney, but looking at Özil... we don't have a player like that" – to be met by: long, deafening silence.

Put it down to that.