Official: Phil Jones will leave United at the end of the season

I think people need to direct their ire towards the club and specifically Woodward rather than Jones himself for him still being here.

Even back in 2019, it should have a max two year contract considering his injury record then, rather than four years. Woodward’s ridiculous strategy of maintaining player value by extending their contract when they barely get on the pitch, resulting in a white elephant for the manager.

Unfortunately for him he is a bit of a symbol of how badly run we’ve been over the years.
 
The idea that he was just happy to sit there and take the money was strange when you consider the kind of player he was in terms of giving maximum effort to everything. He clearly made every effort to get back fit and available but had an awful level of misfortune.

Good luck to him!
 


I remember him when he was 19 y.o in his first season at United, playing as RB, CB, DM and absolutely killing it. Pace, bravery, decent crosses and good defending. I thought we had a real legend in the making, it was long before the age of internet memes. He was that impressive.
 
Sviken said:
I love Sir Alex, but he must be having a laugh with this. What service? On the medical bed while getting paychecks? I wish I had this kind of a job.
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It is just encouraging standard goodbye words. He was more than a decade at the club, even if half of it on the treatment table. However, he is not going to put the boot in.
 
Sviken said:
I love Sir Alex, but he must be having a laugh with this. What service? On the medical bed while getting paychecks? I wish I had this kind of a job.
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Maybe you should watch the video where the doc explains the nature of the injury and the treatments he’s been through.
your comments are clueless and classless.
 
Sviken said:
I love Sir Alex, but he must be having a laugh with this. What service? On the medical bed while getting paychecks? I wish I had this kind of a job.
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He still won the Premier League, which a lot of players can’t say, and played 65 games under Ferguson.
 
I wish him all the best in life and appreciate his attitude and professionalism during his time here. Shame his body let him down
 
Sviken said:
I love Sir Alex, but he must be having a laugh with this. What service? On the medical bed while getting paychecks? I wish I had this kind of a job.
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He won the PL title. Played all of that season. Not many footballers can say that.
 
It'll be interesting to see if he continues his career elsewhere or if he retires. The injuries took his best years and it's been so long since he's been a regular player that I don't think he'll get a chance, not at a top league anyway.

Best of luck to him, a player that always left everything on the pitch.
 
Sviken said:
I love Sir Alex, but he must be having a laugh with this. What service? On the medical bed while getting paychecks? I wish I had this kind of a job.
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What did you want Sir Alex to say "feck off and good riddance" good job he and the club have more class than a majority of United fans on this day
 
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UnitedSofa said:
What? Utter tosh.

Alright Dr Devilish, calm down.
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In my opinion he never managed to reign in his gung-ho style of football which put him in an unnecessary risk of getting injured. Bailly is similar to him and at at a lesser degree so were the Da Silva twins. Diving into tackles might work when a player is 16 year old however as he gets older he must also develop less risky and quite frankly more effective ways of stopping a player. As the great Maldini once said “I don’t think tackling is a quality. It is something you have to resort to, not a characteristic of your game"

Football development is not limited to how tall a player become or how he manages to develop his technical skills. There's a huge element of maturity as well in it ie a player needs to know when to do what. This litmus test also happens once a player heads towards the end of their career as well. Its very hard for a very successful WC player to admit that he can't do certain things anymore. I consider Rio as the second best CB Manchester United had throughout SAF's reign and the best English CB I've ever seen. Yet he simply couldn't adapt to a game were his pace was gone. Players like Scholes who transformed themselves through the ages are rare
 
11101 said:
Good luck to him and thank god its finally over.

I think retirement is next. He's never shown great desire for regular football so I don't see him dropping down multiple levels to get it now.
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How has he he not shown ‘great desire for regular football’? Do you think he was throwing a sicky and didn’t want to play? What evidence have you got for that? The guy suffered from injuries. I bet as a professional footballer you are desperate to play.
 
SAFMUTD said:
It'll be interesting to see if he continues his career elsewhere or if he retires. The injuries took his best years and it's been so long since he's been a regular player that I don't think he'll get a chance, not at a top league anyway.

Best of luck to him, a player that always left everything on the pitch.
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He hasn't kicked a ball in a year, he's a shell of his former self, almost looks sick, no way he's doing anything but retiring.
 
Thanks for the memories Jonesy and for putting your body on the line for us to an extent where you never recovered.

Hope OT gives you a standing ovation before you leave.
 
Some of the comments in here are very classless. Everytime he played for us he gave it his all. Unfortunately his body just wasn't up to the task which is hardly his fault. End of an era and I wish him all the best.
 
12 years but it feels like he only played seriously in 6 of them.

Sorry for his bad luck with injuries, but he should have never been here this long collecting a pro footballers wage.

He should have given up his shirt number and moved to an ambassadorial role years ago.
 
Just trying to put myself in his shoes and the psychological effects of constant injuries and constant rehabilitation.
 
Sviken said:
I love Sir Alex, but he must be having a laugh with this. What service? On the medical bed while getting paychecks? I wish I had this kind of a job.
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You wish you got your absolute dream job, and then were compltely unable to that job through no fault of your own?
 
thought he looked so good when he first signed, absolutely rampaging CB he was at the start
 
UnitedSofa said:


Terry was lauded for this sort of stuff and he’s regarded as one of England’s best ever & I’m sure Jones would have been if he had stayed fit. Class defender and was United’s best player the last time he played for us.
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It’s one of the greatest pieces of defending I have ever seen.
 
All the best, Phil. It must have been hell for the last few years to say the least.

There's no questionning that Ole made a huge mistake giving Phil such a long-term contract, but no different to the other players we've renewed post SAF.

Best of luck for the future!
 
King Eric 7 said:
Think he should retire now. Wouldn't even be possible for him to play in a testimonial. All the best to him.

I do wonder how much that last contract cost the club on a per game basis. Must be obscene.
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Probably not as much as everyone thinks, they will have had some form of insurance
 
UnofficialDevil said:
Really? If someone offered me 110k a week to do nothing for five years, it would certainly make my life chocolates and roses. Plus, I'd be set up for life.
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Do you really think he was doing nothing for 5 years?
 
Yeah big news Man Utd Phil Jones leaves ,in other news Gvardiol joins Man City, just about the height of our last ten years there.
 
Redlyn said:
He's earned almost 30m pounds over his last contract playing about 30 odd games.
Thank God it's finally over.
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We've paid more for the pleasure of sacking the likes of Moyes, LVG, Mourinho and Solskjaer - and each of them caused far more long lasting damage to the club than Jones hanging around for another few years.
 
Phil will look back and wonder what could have been, but he still lived the dream and won stuff. He's also got millions of pounds and his family are set for life, so on the whole I reckon he's a very happy camper. Wish him all the best.
 
What no-one can disagree on, is that when he was on the pitch he was whole hearted and fully committed.
 
Should have left years ago, but that's on the club for offering him that stupid contract, not him.
 
Skills said:
We've paid more for the pleasure of sacking the likes of Moyes, LVG, Mourinho and Solskjaer - and each of them caused far more long lasting damage to the club than Jones hanging around for another few years.
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You mean 30m pounds combined for these four? Because from a quick search it seems only Jose sacking was more than 10 million pounds, the rest - less.
 
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