Pundit apparently, maybe that's his career path.
Phil Jones Future | Reports: Observing United academy sessions
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It was really odd how he was talking past tense while he was interviewing, it seemed "them" and "they" and not "us" and "we".
Probably nothing, but I wonder if he has finished playing behind the scenes.
Probably nothing, but I wonder if he has finished playing behind the scenes.
So surely they're going to let him go at the end of the season right? That would be an extra CB we can fill in during the summer transfer window
I'm 99.99% sure he's never playing for Utd again, wouldn't surprise me if he never plays football again.
I thought he looked worryingly slim and also that he's aged a hell of a lot in the last few years. It's a real shame, giving him that contract in 2019 was a braindead decision but you can't blame him for that. Was Woodwards fault for offering it him, everyone knew even then he was horrendously injury prone.
I don't agree with the top part. Players obviously have a short career and it would be normal for them to make as much while they can. If he loves the club, why would he want to walk away and retire? Clearly most fans are baffled by his repeated new contracts, given his injury problems, but Cantona is a specious example. He didn't retire because he thought he was a burden on the club, he was still near the top of his game, but wanted to go on and do other things. I'm pretty sure Jones will have had pay cuts and who knows how much of his wages were covered by insurance around his injuries.
If he was problematic, eg a negative dressing room influence, I'm sure he would have been shipped out. Clearly the club have seen fit to keep him, but fans always know best about what's really going on inside OT.
Football medicine had already been accurate by the time Van Basten played. It certainly had become more accurate now. Surely someone had told Phil that he is never going to play football anymore or at least not at that levels. Thus someone who truly loved the club would retire, left the club, get a loan elsewhere or ask for an alternative arrangement something that the club would have certainly advertised (as Roma and Tommasi did) as it made good PR for both the player and the club.
That didn't happen and tbf no one should expect that to happen. Most players see football as a job and there's nothing scandalous in Jones being one of them. As you said players has a short (although extremely lucrative) career and if his employer was so stupid to offer that contract to him then why should he bail them out by leaving? However as said before the relationship Jones has with the club is similar to what a typical employee would have with his employer. Thus don't expect me to go all emotional around someone who had been a burden at the club for a big chunk of his United career.
Imagine having the talent to be talked by Sir Alex as a future great and having shown that as well and then being injured for most of your career.
Of course it must be devastating. Getting so close but not making it is difficult
Maybe he still believes he can get back and is desperate to play again for the club he loves. Presumably the medical staff haven't told him it's impossible or he would've quit. We clearly disagree on this and how players should express their love of the club. Maybe he doesn't give a feck cos the Glazers are bleeding us dry anyway.
We're not talking here of a top quality player who came back from injury ruined and who needed some time to acknowledge that he's finished. Jones has been shite for many many years. His career was ravaged with injuries, his performances through the years were few and when he did play he wasn't good enough. Meanwhile new managers came in and all of them kept buying CBs which pushed Jones way back in the pecking order. The writing was pretty much on the wall here.
Regarding the Glazers, well, lousy football decisions of this sort didn't hurt them to the slightest. The Glazers were/are only interest in their dividends which they kept taking up till the very end. Actually Jones signing his contract and remaining here has helped their cause as he was written in as an asset which made the spreadsheets look great (that's one of the reasons Jones was given that silly contract). It also gave the Glazers an excuse not to invest in the squad (ie by forcing managers to first get rid of players no one wanted). The only thing that lousy football decisions had done is hurting the club's reputation and our trust in the institution.
I repeat there's absolutely nothing wrong with what Jones did. He didn't force the club to offer him a new contract and its within his rights to stick to his contract. No one can hate him for that. However I repeat his relationship with the club is that between an employee and an employer. So this emotional attachment to this guy is really naive at best.
Nothing wrong with what he said to the haters. Actually was pretty funny
No one are absolutely one thing. What you are displaying is a lack of empathy towards a issue removed from you based on what we all carry in our daily lives: your own bias. As long as he has money, his personal issues become less important to consider to you. It doesnt mean you dont have empathy towards things you care more about, it just means that you dont find his particular situation anything worthy of your sympathy. Other people who can relate to Jones and what he has gone through will look at this opinion with quite a bit of disdain.
I am on same page with everything what you said. I would only add that he is in fact employee who took advantage of his employer stupidity. Of course, nothing wrong in that also. We all would do that i guess.
But all this love towards this guy is strange at least.
That's taking it a bit too far. I believe it was of mutual benefit.
- Jones was perfectly aware that if he left United then his football career was finished
- The Glazers wanted him to stay as his price looked nice on a spreadsheet + he was the perfect excuse needed by the Glazers not to spend too much money (we have enough CBs + we have to sell before we buy BS).
The only big loser here was the club.
I certainly would. Just because money doesnt mean what it does to you or me, doesnt mean its not important.Its literally the credit to how we can live our lives on this planet.
Its up to a signing club and a medical staff to evaluate wether or not he can meet the physical stress of top level football. Not the player themselves.
Juventus gave Pogba a contract knowing full well his injury record is nearly as bad as Jones.
In the case of Jones, the discussion about mental health, or comments alluding to it are warranted because Jones himself have spoken publicly about it. If he hadnt, I would agree that talking about it would be inappropriate. I hope no one are suggesting a clinical diagnosis of depression or similar, thats speculative, but that common debate about " a dark place" is something most of us can relate to in a very large range of versions. Most of us, at some point in our lives have had periods where things have just felt hard, and that is where we can all relate. The levels to how hard things feel arent important to a broad discussion.
Start him tomorrow, probably be his last game for us, always gave his all, didn't look too well on Sunday, looks like he has lost a lot of weight, but every time he wears the colours of united, he does his job plus need to give players a rest, save them for sunday
There's no way he calls the rest of the squad "they" on Sunday only to start the game few days later. I think he's already played his last game in United shirt, perhaps he'll be allowed a goodbye and subbed on in 90th minute or something in one of the cups, but there's no way he's any close to fitness required for a United player. If we plan to rotate our CBs against West Ham, I'd much rather we give minutes to someone who can still contribute to the club in the future and try to integrate some youth players.
Throw a game so he can say goodbye?
Exactly this, yeah we've seen next to nothing tangible from our investment in him, but reputationally amongst players it surely must have done some good? Knowing that should the shit hit the fan (He who must not be named type situations aside) then the club has your back is worth a lot.
This is insane.
He's not played a minute of football all season, as you even said he didn't look in great health on Sunday and yet you want us to start him tomorrow?
Must say I thought this too - hope everything's ok with him. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if there were underlying issues that we're simply not privy too.
He will play if he deserves to and there is currently 5 players ahead of him, so its a firm no.
He isn’t even registered in the squad so he can’t play
He will play if he deserves to and there is currently 5 players ahead of him, so its a firm no.
He honoured his contract impeccably. Cant fault someone for being darn lucky.
When we signed Phil Jones, Jimmy Savile was still remembered as a star, SAF still had two years left with us, Whitney Houston was still alive, and Ed Sheeran hadn’t yet had a hit record.
And I had great hopes for our new centre back signing. Shame how it’s all worked out really. Still not a massive Sheeran fan.
And I had great hopes for our new centre back signing. Shame how it’s all worked out really. Still not a massive Sheeran fan.
I really hope that he hit a nerve, seems like it . Great!
While he is stealing a living without any meaningfull contibution to United, it was really sad to see him on live televison. He looked like a shadow of himself and there's probably much more behind the scenes than we'll ever know. He's not one to blame for that ridiculous contract he was given, it was Woodwad and Ole joint incompetence and he only took what was on the table. Hope he finds some peace once his contract runs out and reinvents himself, because at the moment future doesn't like so bright for him no matter the money he has.
Feel really sorry for Jones. Couldn't care less about the contract and money he's earnt. A very good player in his early days, who's career has been destroyed by injuries. Says it all that he still managed to play for his country. Poor lad looked mentally shot on sky the other week. Leave him be.
Your defence of Jones coupled with your abuse of Lindelof is weird dude.
Which is strange given that Lindelof is a significantly better player than Phil Jones ever was. Bizarre indeed.
Not sure that's in any way true at all.
Being available to play, or even be available as squad player aloner probably makes him better. Even though I would always pick Jones ahead of him if both are available, but players who are constantly injured(even when he was at his best) are not worth that much really - see Pogba.
I have soft spot for Jones. Whenever he was on the pitch he always gave his all. He even attempted to block a shot with his face/head while down on the pitch. He was a fighter and great character. It's a pity that he was so injury prone. Never seen a player with worse injury record than Jones.
Phil Jones always made errors, would wander around the pitch and get caught out of position. Was a semi decent passer but nothing more, the only thing he had over Lindelof was his physical nature but that was part of his long term issues. HE could never be relied on for a long period of time either. The over rating he gets on here is wild.
Abuse? Lindelof gets not even half the “abuse” that Jones gets. Toxic
I don’t defend him because of his skills btw, I do so because of the abuse he gets for being injured. I would actually do the same for Lindelof
I must have missed Jones showing he could be a future great. .many years of averageness, with the periodical good to great performance, amongst his many many injuries. Fergie got it totally wrong with him. One of the worst I've seen.
Did you start supporting us in 2016 or something?
Jones at 18/19 was incredible and in multiple positions as well. If he's one of the worst you've seen there's not much convincing you.
Behave yourself. A good season here and there amongst years of shite.. I'd love to hear your notes on Massimo taibi.
The abuse he gets is well out of order but I do think there's this weird narrative that he looked like an absolute world beater before the injuries. He had great potential true, but I honestly think people forget just how error prone he was/could be. There was a very good chance that even without the injuries he would never have fulfilled his potential because he just didn't seem a very smart defender.
Hope he resurrects his career somewhere else and I wish him well.
Hope he resurrects his career somewhere else and I wish him well.
Obviously fergie didn’t help with his wacky prediction, but he was a defender who left it all on the pitch; you could never fault his effort
He was a very good player. Injuries ruined him. If you lot all know more than Fergie then well….
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