ASHLEY YOUNG ON HIS ‘MATURE’ APPROACH
Ashley Young on Pep, life under Jose and his dream of a World Cup place
MOMENTS before Ashley Young sits down to discuss his impressive season at Manchester United, England manager Gareth Southgate walks through the lobby at their Carrington training ground to meet Jose Mourinho. Young must hope it is a positive omen for the World Cup this summer.
Four years ago, he received the devastating news during a holiday in Dubai that he had not made the final 23-man squad for Brazil, despite starting every game at the previous European Championship.
‘I got a phone call from the manager [Roy Hodgson] to explain,’ he says. ‘It was bitterly disappointing. I’d been to the Euros but the World Cup is a pinnacle.
‘Leighton Baines was staying at the same place as me and we’d be asking each other, “Have you had a call yet?”. In the end it was good news for him, not for me.
‘There were no hard feelings — we still went out afterwards! Things like that give you the fight and hunger to do even better.’
Let alone a 2018 World Cup place, Young started this season with question-marks about his role at United under Mourinho. Instead, he has started 20 of 28 Premier League games ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Crystal Palace, and earned an international recall in November to win his 31st cap against Brazil, 1,526 days after his last one.
His versatility — ‘I’ve played every position except goalkeeper and centre-half’ — has seen him become Mourinho’s leftback of choice ahead of specialists Luke Shaw, Matteo Darmian and Daley Blind. While some might view a positional change as a downgrade, Young sees it as an asset. Louis van Gaal was first to use him as a wing-back, right or left, and Mourinho went a step further. ‘I’ve never had an ego about it,’ he says. ‘Things can be dissected too much. It’s football, go and play. There are the goals, there’s the ball. Go and score. ‘If I’m asked to play a certain position, I’ll do it 100 per cent. Not to fill in, to cement a place. I can play in six different positions where managers can trust me. It must give them food for thought knowing I can do a job in different positions. Maybe that versatility could help with England. The World Cup is coming up quicker than people realise. ‘My last call-up was brilliant. I would like to think I deserved it, the manager said he would pick players on form and I’ve been playing well this season. There is another England squad in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can be in that and then we have to wait and see. I have to carry on what I have been doing and hopefully get the recognition.’ It is a far cry from last year, when there was strong interest from China amid fears he was not part of Mourinho’s plans. ‘It’s reported every year that I am about to leave but I’ve always wanted to be here,’ he says. ‘And for as long as I can, I’d like to finish my career at United. I’ve got that mentality to keep going and change people’s minds.
‘I know how to play the game, I’ve got a football brain and feel as fit and healthy as I did when I was younger. I’d be able to give the 23-year-old me a close race.’
His contract expires this summer, though United have the option to trigger a year’s extension. Young rarely does interviews and his suspicion of the limelight means he has faced accusations of an overly serious personality.
In reality, he is never far from the high jinks that are part of any dressing room. Whether it is singing United songs as part of his club initiation or, last week, throwing snowballs at photographers.
Off-piste, he likes cooking — ‘I do a good steak with special sauce and seasoning’ — and travels to keep in touch with family. One of his three brothers, Lewis, plays for Crawley and Ashley’s son is at the Arsenal academy.
Now 32, Young has the experience and maturity to guide younger team-mates like Shaw, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominay, particularly as he has been forced to overcome tough times with injuries.
‘I’m glad you said mature, you probably meant old,’ he says with a laugh. ‘But, yes, you feel more like a senior. When the young boys come in to the team, you want to help.
‘I’m willing to talk to any of them, they want to ask questions and be as good as they can. It’s refreshing. A lot of youngsters think they’ve made it before they’ve done anything. But at United, they’re given that winning mentality and an ethos of always trying to improve.
‘Our manager has a tough task trying to get everyone inside after training because everyone wants to stay out and better themselves.’ Ordinarily, United’s results this season would be regarded favourably. They have been second in the league for most of the year and are in the latter stages of the Champions League and FA Cup. Manchester City’s outstanding form has altered perceptions, though Young is the wrong person to ask to join a Pep Guardiola love-in.
‘We aren’t in awe of Man City,’ he says firmly. ‘They have had a good season, you can’t get round that, but we talk about ourselves. I don’t think you’d find a United player talking about City, and you won’t find a City player talking about us.
‘We concentrate on what is happening here. Credit to them, they have done fantastically well this season. But we’re fighting on all fronts. Even in the league, until the points are done and they’ve won it, we’ve got a lot to play for.’
Mourinho’s back-five has regularly been made up of players at the club for several years: David
de Gea, Antonio Valencia, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Young. Not the Class of 92, but a bedrock of stability that has helped United lift three trophies in two seasons.
‘The team spirit has always been unbelievable and not just the longer-serving players.’ says Young. ‘Alexis (Sanchez) has just come in, it hasn’t taken him much time to settle because everyone welcomes you with open arms.
‘I think United is the biggest club in the world. I got a sense of it from my first pre-season tour to America. It was a long flight, I was tired and ready to go to my hotel room when we arrived. Then I saw the amount of fans outside the hotel and they didn’t leave the whole time we were there.
‘I’m a private person and like to keep away from things when I’m not playing. But I understand as a United footballer, you’ll be recognised nearly everywhere and people want things signed or pictures taken. You have to embrace it.’
Young is buoyed by being able to keep up with the younger generation in physical work-outs.
‘My legs might take a bit longer to recover after games but other than that, I feel as fit as ever.
‘The manager has high standards. He enjoys a joke but when it’s time to get down to serious work, you need to be serious. As players you don’t have to be told.
‘You will see people come back disappointed if they’ve lost a game in training. It’s that Man United mentality. There is no better feeling than success at this club.’
Having played for five different England managers and five at United, Young is used to repeatedly proving himself to big figures. He puts his determination down to an early experience at Watford when rejected for a youth training scheme at 16.
‘I just sat in the chair and didn’t speak to anyone for the whole day,’ he recalls. ‘It was heartbreaking. I could have gone to other places on trial but decided I was going to show these people they got it wrong. I signed up as a part-time scholar and within three months I was playing for the reserves. From there, I was offered a professional contract. It was the biggest turning point in my career.’
More than 15 years on, Young is still proving people wrong. He is United’s surprise success story of the season and when his 33rd birthday comes in the middle of the World Cup, he hopes to be in Russia to celebrate.