Ashley Young says he rejected Liverpool

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Manchester United captain Ashley Young has claimed he rejected Liverpool back in 2011.

Young signed for United along with Phil Jones eight years ago, and both players have had rollercoaster rides at Old Trafford.

Currently Young is the United club captain and led the team out to a win over Tottenham last Wednesday night.

Speaking to the UTD Podcast, Young said: “My agent called me and said: ‘Listen, you’re going into the last year of your contract, there are a few teams that are in for you.

“He said Liverpool. We’d already spoken to [Manchester] City. Then he said United had come in. And I said: ‘When am I meeting Sir Alex? Where’s the pen?’ There was no other place I wanted to go.

“The history of the club, the players that were here, what they’d achieved. For me, that was the place I wanted to be. I wanted to go there and put my marker down on this club and play for the biggest club, for me, in the world. As soon as my agent said that… we didn’t even meet Liverpool!”

Has it worked out?

Right now Liverpool fans are unlikely to be kicking themselves about missing out on Ashley Young.

Back in 2011 he would have improved their team quite a bit, and his first season at United began well.

We all remember his performance in the 8-2 demolition of Arsenal and his two curling efforts.

He scored eight goals in his first year at United, a figure he has not come close to topping since.

In recent years Young has reinvented himself from a winger to a full-back and represented England at the World Cup in 2018.

Young is not the future of United, but he has a part to play in the present, is clearly liked behind the scenes and by his teammates.

This could be his final season at United and it might yet end with him lifting a trophy, just not the Premier League, which he won back in 2012/13.

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