Is Manchester United’s latest signing a victim of the hype machine?
This week Ashley Young finalised a move to Premier League champions Manchester United in a deal worth in the region of £17 million and a weekly salary of a colossal £130,000. Ashley Young is highly rated and was considered the star at Aston Villa before his switch, but is Ashley Young overrated and a victim of the ‘hype machine’ that exists for exciting young English talent? In this article I will argue that, despite his impressive talent, Ashley Young is overrated and not an upgrade on the exciting Nani and the returning Antonio Valencia.
Ashley Young burst onto the Premier League scene with Watford in 2006 and had an impressive season which earned him a move to Aston Villa for a reported £8 million fee. Many thought this was overpriced for the young winger at the time, but Young paid back this trust with a large number of goals and assists for his new club nearly firing them into the Champions League in 2009 only to be overtaken by Arsenal late into the season. Ashley Young has matured into a very competent winger who is equally adept at playing on either wing which will serve him well at Old Trafford if he is to successful oust either Valencia or Nani from the starting line ups.
Whilst I believe that £17 million and weekly wages of £130,000 is ridiculously excessive for a player like Ashley Young one can’t doubt his durability, his strength and his experience of playing in the Premier League week in and week out. Over the last 4 seasons Young’s league appearances have been very impressive, with 37 league starts in 2007/8, 36 league starts in 2008/9, 37 league starts in 2009/10 and 34 league starts in 2010/11. These remarkable stats show that Ashley Young has only missed 8 league games in 4 years and has averaged 36 league games a season over that time. His injury record is thus very attractive to Manchester United who will know that Young isn’t likely to be in the treatment room all season like the rather unfortunate Owen Hargreaves.
Nigel Reo-Coker was gushing with his praise for the winger this week when asked about what Ashley Young could offer a team such as Manchester United, saying:
“I’m sure Ashley can live up to expectations and deliver for the United fans, who will love him.
People have said United are lacking a bit of flair and creativity, since Ronaldo left.
I think that is something he will definitely add to Manchester United.
He has great vision and I am sure he will create a lot of goals for them, as well as scoring himself.”
I would agree with Reo-Coker to an extent, Ashley Young on form can be a genuinely exciting player to watch yet far too often I feel he flatters to deceive. In the league last season Young created 10 assists and scored 7 goals himself whilst taking the penalties. The season before Young assisted 7 goals and scored 5 himself. If we compare this to the much maligned Andrei Arshavin at Arsenal we see that these stats aren’t all that impressive for a player on a reported £130,000 a week. Arshavin only started 25 games in the Premier League in comparison to Young’s 34 games yet he still managed to create 11 assists and score 6 goals.
All in all I feel Ashley Young is a decent squad player at a club like Manchester United and will probably enjoy a decent level of success there, yet some of the hyperbole surrounding his signing is verging on the insane with comparisons to the ultra-effective Ronaldo completely unjustified. Whether Young enjoys a successful career at Old Trafford remains to be seen, but one feels he doesn’t justify the fee or wages currently on offer.
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June 27th, 2011
Theres alot of talk like; will he be this, will he be that, when all that counts is that he will probably have a title winners medal by may and all this talk will be irrelavant.
June 27th, 2011
How would him winning a title make talk of his ability irrelevant?
June 27th, 2011
Who compared his signing to the success of Ronaldo??
Who stated young was an “Upgrade” on Valencia or Nani??
Who the Fuck is Reo-Coker. lol
Ok well scrap that last one!!
June 27th, 2011
Reo-Coker. Also Martin O’Neill compared Young to Ronaldo a little while back.
When Ashley Young (with one year left on his deal) is signed for £15 million and gets put on £130k a week I don’t think it’s unreasonable to compare him to Valencia and Nani.
June 27th, 2011
as a villa fan watchin him every week for four and a half years; well if you think that the quality of forwards on offer at Arsenal and at Villa Park are the same then you don t deserve to write about football. Of course he could put 1.5million perfect crosses into heskey and probebly have only 3 assists.
Will suit United down to the ground. Exceptional skill and self confidence mixed with an exceptional work rate. twice the player of Milner and 4 times Downing to suggest £16m is over-priced when Carrick cost £18m, Carroll £35 (yes this is a striker who scored less a league below young the season before last) and Henderson £20m well it perhaps shows an inherent lack of wide footballing knowledge; perhaps being united centric has harmed you more than you know.
June 27th, 2011
What makes you think I am ‘United centric’?
June 27th, 2011
I was one of the genuine Man UTD fans that wasn’t excited by the Young transfer, because he isn’t someone that will take us any closer to Barcelona especially if he is the only midfielder we get this summer. However, the more I have thought about it the more I think it is a really good signing, he one of the few genuine left wingers, who plays at great pace and tricky (and proved so against us in the past) and someone who can do a great job for us. In terms of rating him on stats for Villa, i’m not sure this gives the full picture where assists are concerned. You have to remember that Valencia probably trebled his previous record for highest seasons assists for Wigan since playing for utd. When Ashley young is crossing or taking free kicks for UTD with Hernandez, Rooney, Vidic he will probably get 25 assists (if injury free). We have also missed someone who is a threat from set pieces. It will be nice to have someone who can scare the opposition 25 yards out, something we haven’t had since ronaldo.
June 27th, 2011
You cant compare Young playing in a team like Villa to Arshavin playing in a team like Arsenal. Way to early to tell how this one will work out, but playing with top players in front of 70,000 people could turn him into a real quality player as he has the talent, just have to wait and see. Agree those wages are to much, but you cant be sure as to whether thats actually true, the papers would have you believe Rooney is on 250,000 a week which is pure nonsense.
June 27th, 2011
I would argue that Nani has threatened teams from 25 yards or so, and Rooney has in the past.
June 27th, 2011
Wtf!!! Young in a.vila was just like a big tree in a small forrest, how dear u compare arshavin with young, arshavin play for one of the big team in the world with decent strikers who make proper use of his pass and convert it to goals, unlike young who play for a mild table team in epl. You forget to note that young have the 2nd highest rate of assist behing cesc fab in the last past 4 yrs. With the inflation in this transfer market nowadays, young price is normal, if young is overrated, what can u say of 35m£ paid by liverpool for carrol, what about 50m£ paid by chelsea for torres, 20m£ paid by liverpool for jordan henderson, 16m£ paid by man utd for jones, 40m£-50m£ barca or city will pay for sanchez. The writer of this post knows nothing about sport or is blind due to the rival b/w man utd and his club. Get a life.
June 27th, 2011
Well obviously I think Henderson, Carroll and Torres were grossly overpriced.
That is stating the obvious.
June 27th, 2011
Very true Simon, the papers reported the same old sensationalist bullshit about Rooney when he is in fact earning 160K a week. Young is likely to earn between 80-100k a week Max, which IMHO is still too much for him. The comparison with Arshavin is a meaningless one, Arsenal are a very creative team and tend to create a lot more opnenings than Aston Villa, not to mention a certain Gareth Bale’s goals and assists record last season as Player of the season…enough said!
June 27th, 2011
Rooney is on 160k but also gets 90k per week in image rights, and therefore earns 250k
June 27th, 2011
I don’t think Bale should’ve been POTY and I also think he is incredibly overrated.
June 27th, 2011
Good article but could do with a few puns. Im sure you have some in you George
June 27th, 2011
Thank you Adam. I think it is Aston-ishing that some think of Villa in such a way, considering that they nearly got Champions League a couple of seasons ago.
June 27th, 2011
There’s no way Young is on £160K, where did you get that from? That would completely destroy the wage structure at the club and it’s far, far more than United needed to offer to get Young to sign. Fergie and Gill aren’t that stupid.
June 28th, 2011
…No one said Young was on £160k.
A couple said Rooney was on that before image rights, perhaps that’s where you became confused.