Ashley Young | now of Everton

Too many people don't appreciate nor understand the importance of quality professionals and high character people as part of your football squad. You need old heads to guide all the other players through the entire season and be an outlet. Good dressing rooms police themselves and have the right people holding each other accountable in different, but positive ways. And the positive thing for Youngy is that he has adapted his game and continued to learn to make himself a valuable part of a squad. So usually when he does play, he's rather reliable and professional. Keeps himself in great shape, knows the game, and is relied upon.

He's a wonderful professional and played in different countries, won in both, and been played by some top managers in his career.
 
DOTA said:
My memory is of him recieving a considerable amount of praise from several of those names. I think even when he's been down the pecking order he's been the kind of player managers love having in their squad, in training and when needed on the field.
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He's a committed hard worker, and professional (will maintain his dedication whoever the manager). However, he's not someone the managers all would go out their way to get him at their next gig. He's a squad player you keep around before you can complete the squad rebuild. However we ended up with him as starter at time in new role in a forever rebuild process. That was the issue.
 
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Man won a league title in England and Italy, a League Cup, an FA Cup and a Europa League. 39 England caps and went to Euro 2012 and World Cup 2018. PFA Young Player of the Year winner.

A fine career and one he can be proud of. His only crime was being asked to play for Man Utd at a time when the general quality of our team dipped considerably, which isn't his fault even if he wasn't going to be able to help the team reach new heights. I always had respect for him and he seemed to get what it meant to be a United player too.
 
GifLord said:
Not bitter I just hate how this club's been run. The holier than thou schtick with homegrown/english players. Giving certain players 5-6 chances when they weren't even worth giving 2. Not shipping out players who were way past it because they were club legedns,... We've spent over a $ billion in the last 10 years and are still as shit as we were after Moyes. We have literally become a banter club - a laughing stock.
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You aren't wrong, but I don't think I've seen you say a positive thing about any of our players on here. I know a lot of them have been frauds and let us down, but we've had some good performances this season.
 
Jesus. People bigging up Young really shows you the state we've gotten ourselves into. It'd be like City fans reminiscing over Fabian Delph because he was a good professional and played in whatever position the manager asked of him.

Young was brought in as a creative winger who would rack up goals and assists. He had a decent first 6 months but did very little of what we actually bought him for after that. He turned into a sort of utility player further back the pitch because he couldn't effect the game in the final third in the way he once could. You can give him credit for recognising his decline and making himself semi useful as a squad player in unorthodox positions, but please, don't insult your own intelligence by thinking he was more.
 
CloneMC16 said:
You aren't wrong, but I don't think I've seen you say a positive thing about any of our players on here. I know a lot of them have been frauds and let us down, but we've had some good performances this season.
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We had some good performances under Ole aswell :D
 
edcunited1878 said:
Too many people don't appreciate nor understand the importance of quality professionals and high character people as part of your football squad. You need old heads to guide all the other players through the entire season and be an outlet. Good dressing rooms police themselves and have the right people holding each other accountable in different, but positive ways. And the positive thing for Youngy is that he has adapted his game and continued to learn to make himself a valuable part of a squad. So usually when he does play, he's rather reliable and professional. Keeps himself in great shape, knows the game, and is relied upon.

He's a wonderful professional and played in different countries, won in both, and been played by some top managers in his career.
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I don't disagree with what's being said here. However, @GifLord frustration is total understandable because there is an issue in the declining standard at the club when player from Ashley Young level became leader and peacekeeper in the dressing room. He even became club captain for half a season before moving to Inter. He's an example of an individual failing upward in a declining organization. If he's only squad player, and left when we find an replacement/upgrade, it would be great for all parties. Similar thing is happening now when some fans want to keep Weghorst around. One poster even said something along the line, Weghorst work ethic would help as example to keep other players to work hard in training. You don't fix a team by just sub standard players however much they externally show they love to stay here.

Somehow Ole messed up enough that he pissed Young off by not offering him a proper contract extension. Ashley Young left. Good right? Ended up buying Telles to cover for left wing (a downgrade IMO)... Somehow worse captain got promoted, too. And those things are yet resolved.

So it's not about someone like @GifLord not be able to understand squad player role; it's more about some people have no standard, and often turn an blind eye to some obvious issue.
 
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ti vu said:
Somehow Ole messed up enough that he pissed Young off by not offering him an proper contract extension. Ashley Young left.
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I think it was more that Young had (rightfully) dropped down the pecking order and wasn't getting much game-time. Meanwhile the soon-to-be Italian champions were trying to sign him as a starter, so he thought it was just too good an opportunity not to demand to leave. Which I don't blame him for.
 
edcunited1878 said:
Too many people don't appreciate nor understand the importance of quality professionals and high character people as part of your football squad. You need old heads to guide all the other players through the entire season and be an outlet. Good dressing rooms police themselves and have the right people holding each other accountable in different, but positive ways. And the positive thing for Youngy is that he has adapted his game and continued to learn to make himself a valuable part of a squad. So usually when he does play, he's rather reliable and professional. Keeps himself in great shape, knows the game, and is relied upon.

He's a wonderful professional and played in different countries, won in both, and been played by some top managers in his career.
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Didn’t he sulk and refuse to train, to force a move Inter, in the middle of the season whilst captain of the club?
 
GifLord said:
He was an attacking winger when we bought him. He scored 5 goals and made 16 assists in 3 seasons for Utd in 83 games. He should have been gone alongside Valencia but instead we gave them new contracts and new positions. While City was buying players and improving each season we were playing Charity United and drowning lower and lower with each passing season. Also forgot to mention i seriously disliked his diving antics.
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The issue I have with what you have here is that Valencia and even Young to lesser extent were actually good in their new positions at first. Both had periods where they were amongst the best in the league in those positions and two of our better performers, so they were hardly the priority to upgrade or the cause of us struggling. Obviously they both remained starting players too long after they had fallen away but that's a different discussion.
 
HarryP said:
Jesus. People bigging up Young really shows you the state we've gotten ourselves into. It'd be like City fans reminiscing over Fabian Delph because he was a good professional and played in whatever position the manager asked of him.
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Fabian Delph woke up this morning thinking, "there's no way anyone is going to trash talk me on Red Cafe today. Today will be a good day."
And look what you did!
 
Decent squad player and was a good dressing room member in his latter years.

but…whilst I have no ill feeling towards him, he epitomised the start of our decline. Whilst City were buying Silva and Aguero, we were stuck with Ashley Young and Chicarito.

There was no coming back from that
 
OL29 said:
Didn’t he sulk and refuse to train, to force a move Inter, in the middle of the season whilst captain of the club?
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He was in the middle of a transfer and was wanted by Conte towards the end of the January transfer window, so getting clarity and having discussions on his immediate future isn't unheard of and totally fair.

He wanted to leave for another opportunity in a professional manner and still got United a transfer fee.
 
I think if he had an afro he'd be much respected as a player. Even more if the afro is pink.
 
He’s been very good for Villa this season, fair play to him. One of the best shithousery players in the PL.
 
He was a decent player for the level we were at. Europa league challengers aspiring to make it in the CL. Beyond that can't see why anyone would rate him particularly highly
 
AndySmith1990 said:
He was a decent player for the level we were at. Europa league challengers aspiring to make it in the CL. Beyond that can't see why anyone would rate him particularly highly
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He was in teams that got 89 points his first two seasons, to be fair.
 
GifLord said:
No I just hate mediocre players. And he was the epitome of it.
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That’s like half the league then. You could call almost any player mediocre when compared to others. It’s all relative.

Also hate is such a strong word for people just trying to do their best.
 
Sign me up for the Ashley Young fan club - always liked him and appreciate the job he did with us.
 
edcunited1878 said:
He was in the middle of a transfer and was wanted by Conte towards the end of the January transfer window, so getting clarity and having discussions on his immediate future isn't unheard of and totally fair.

He wanted to leave for another opportunity in a professional manner and still got United a transfer fee.
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Come on now, the guy pretty much went on strike, that’s more than just getting clarity on his future and would definitely be considered as unprofessional, especially as captain of the team. And he hardly did united a favour by getting us a transfer fee, he was under contract.
 
OL29 said:
Come on now, the guy pretty much went on strike, that’s more than just getting clarity on his future and would definitely be considered as unprofessional, especially as captain of the team. And he hardly did united a favour by getting us a transfer fee, he was under contract.
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If you go to page one of this thread you shall see no one really cared at the time, so I don't fancy your chances now.
 
Great professional at United, took huge levels of abuse but was largely a victim of when he was here. If he had a decade under Ferguson he'd have the same regard as likes of oshea or park. Great to see him still going
 
OL29 said:
Come on now, the guy pretty much went on strike, that’s more than just getting clarity on his future and would definitely be considered as unprofessional, especially as captain of the team. And he hardly did united a favour by getting us a transfer fee, he was under contract.
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He wasn't a first-team starter at the time - a good offer came in and he asked to leave - "going on strike" is a bit of a stretch - was really no drama then other then one you would choose to make.
 
He's been a great pro, and will have fond memories at his time at United.

As with most players in that post-SAF to Ole belt, probably stayed for longer than he should have.

But he's had a career better than most.
 
DOTA said:
If you go to page one of this thread you shall see no one really cared at the time, so I don't fancy your chances now.
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Yeah I get that, I didn’t really care that much either, I just think it’s odd to call people out for not understanding the need for professionals in the team when talking about someone who showed extreme unprofessionalism as captain of the club.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
He wasn't a first-team starter at the time - a good offer came in and he asked to leave - "going on strike" is a bit of a stretch - was really no drama then other then one you would choose to make.
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Who’s creating drama? I’m just calling it what it is; unprofessional.
 
Solius said:
That’s like half the league then. You could call almost any player mediocre when compared to others. It’s all relative.

Also hate is such a strong word for people just trying to do their best.
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Yeah but this mediocre player at the time was one of our most paid players if I remember correctly.
When city bough a keeper in Bravo to replace Hart he wasn't good enough and they went out and bought Ederson the next seaosn.
While at Utd nobody even questioned how good of a player Young was they rewarded him by transitioning him into a new position.
Same with Valencia - the same guy who when he got the number #7 jersey looked like he got space jammed. And we rewarded these
sort of players and thats why we are where we are.
 
A very good footballer who has had a fantastic career. Did well at United playing in multiple positions and I'm not entirely sure I can remember his 'lack of professionalism' when leaving.

"To be fair, I think it was for Ashley, he's 35 in the summer and if he gets a two-year contract somewhere I think it's up to him to take that," Solskjaer said. "We weren't ready to offer that. He's been a good servant, captain, won trophies, cups, but we've got players coming through."

Not quite sure we need to retrospectively create drama that never was...

Anyway, what an athlete to still be doing it at his age and holding down a place in a top 5 club.
 
GifLord said:
Yeah but this mediocre player at the time was one of our most paid players if I remember correctly.
When city bough a keeper in Bravo to replace Hart he wasn't good enough and they went out and bought Ederson the next seaosn.
While at Utd nobody even questioned how good of a player Young was they rewarded him by transitioning him into a new position.
Same with Valencia - the same guy who when he got the number #7 jersey looked like he got space jammed. And we rewarded these
sort of players and thats why we are where we are.
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I don't disagree, we know how badly we were mis-managed, but I still see no reason to hate him. That's a very strong emotion to have against someone who played for your team and didn't really do anything disrespectful.
 
Solius said:
I don't disagree, we know how badly we were mis-managed, but I still see no reason to hate him. That's a very strong emotion to have against someone who played for your team and didn't really do anything disrespectful.
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I mean it's like Liverpool fans reminiscing about Welsh Xavi - Joe Allen. I really don't even wanna remember about those days and some of those players. Same way I despise the Rooney of old but worship the young Rooney.
 
Solius said:
I don't disagree, we know how badly we were mis-managed, but I still see no reason to hate him. That's a very strong emotion to have against someone who played for your team and didn't really do anything disrespectful.
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Indeed. It also isn't his fault if he was one of our most highly paid players. Direct that dislike towards them who gave him that contract. Unless @GifLord is suggesting that mediocre players shouldn't accept good contract offers?
 
top1whoisman said:
Indeed. It also isn't his fault if he was one of our most highly paid players. Direct that dislike towards them who gave him that contract. Unless @GifLord is suggesting that mediocre players shouldn't accept good contract offers?
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It's about being ruthless and this club started rewarding mediocrity while under Fergie we'd be shipping out players the next season.
 
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