Jonny Evans has been receiving plenty of praise over the past few weeks, with some people even claiming Rio Ferdinand, when he returns, will have a job pushing Evans out of the team.
Not long ago, Evans wished he’d been allowed to stay at Sunderland, wanting first team football. After breaking in to the first team and getting plenty of games, Evans is delighted he’s still at his boyhood club.
“When Sunderland came in for me it was a case of me wanting to play first team football,” said Evans. “Manchester United said no to Sunderland and I understood that and I was happy about it. I am a big Manchester United fan and have been all my life. All my family are huge United fans. My dad hasn’t missed a game for five years at Old Trafford. He wouldn’t even miss a United match to come and watch me play at Sunderland. So it has always been a dream to play at Manchester United. I had to give myself time to realise that dream. But I will always be grateful to Sunderland for the experience they gave me up there. It has certainly stood me in good stead for what I am experiencing now at United.”
Evans has reflected on his time at Sunderland, claiming it was more difficult that what he now faces at United.
“It was actually tougher to play in a relegation battle last year with Sunderland in the Premier League than it is playing for United at times,” he added. “I played 15 games last season for them in a really tough relegation battle. You are defending against the likes of Chelsea and you don’t have the same kind of top players I have around me or in front of me at United. So I learnt a lot last year. It gave me the confidence to play Premier League football. It has been a big bonus now I am back at United. For instance, I played against Didier Drogba last week for United, but I had already played against him for Sunderland when they were fighting for the league and we were fighting relegation. It was a big learning experience and certainly helped me when we played Chelsea recently.”
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Evans is indeed impressive. I really really like him, he can be our best central defender of all time i believe that but it is up to him to achieve that. It is just unbelievable that he is that young… because he is way too matured for a central defender of his age. And he didnt create that euphoria of a wonderkid before..
I think he’s cheating his age like Freddy Adu haha
This kid is gonna be massive for us…
Watching him play it’s sometimes hard to believe he’s still only 20/21, but he still has little errors every now and again that creep into his game. Thankfully he has The Serbinator alongside him to cover, but he’ll be intent on ironing those out in due course.
Another good thing is that his game doesn’t really rely too much on pace, which means, fitness permitting of course, he could have a lengthy career at the top of the game a la Maldini.
Exciting prospect indeed!
Fuglis: “This kid is gonna be massive for us…”
Reality check here – he already is “massive for us”; and just imagine that defenders don’t really reach the top of their game until their later-middle twenties. The sky’s the limit for him.
How many of you think this kid could take Charlton’s record? remember Giggs missed a ton of games due to injury .. I think if Evans keeps himself fit he has a better chance than anyone we had since giggs to beat charlton record and then maybe giggs!!
Latest to join the list of great irish(both north and south) players for united. good man evans.future captain in my eyes. keep it up mate!
@denton – Fair point mate. I guess we agree on his potential then.
i think he has done a good job by not doing any mistake. but saying massive is a bit stretched. most of the donkey work is done by vidic. i hope he becomes massive like rio/vidic….
@red rooney, yes the donkey work is done by vida but teh point is that vida is also benefiting from teh presence of evans. do you actually think we could have kept all these clean sheets if it had been o’shea patnering vida? do you actually think vida will be confident to be with silvestre? i can remember a time when we never saw the best of rio simply because he has to partner silvestre. as soona s vida came on board, their partnership became deadly. teh advantage we have with this boy is that we have rio, vida, evans and wesley will also join them soon. any one of these can be called upon to partner each other in the central defence. the times are getting better.
He’s gonna be 3rd choice for a good few seaons yet, and long term he’ll take Rio’s place. He seems naturally left sided too which is always handy. I understand why Pique was allowed to leave now.
At last one of the academy’s productions is gonna be part of it all again. he will stay here for many years to come.
I’d say fourth choice because Brown is a top centre back and assuming Raf and Gary keep alternating the right-back position…Another quality player in the making though and so pleasing he’s British and a United fan, it will provide the club with the kind of stability our home-grown players have given us over the last 15 or so years
I think Jonny Evans is total rubbish and should go back to Sunderland on a free transfer. I don’t know what all you Man U fans are going on about. Get rid of him. Please can we have him back up here…….pretty please!!!!
Wes will have to fight for some playing time at the right back position now.Because the form evans has been in, he’ll def be 3rd choice centre back when rio is back fit…
yeah, I was more answering the over the next few years point rather than Wes’ immediate return…
You have a real gem in young Evans….and remember, he is still very young, especially for a centre back. He has got decent pace, good in the air, reads the game with surprising maturity and isn’t intimidated. Wish we could have kept him at SAFC but Sir Alex is now allowing him to blossom at ManU so no surprise he wants to stay part of it. Just a shame he’s not English! Good luck to the boy.
Evans >Pique
and i never taught id say that when united sold pique
SAF has shown us why we are fans and he is the grand master. he sold pique and we all thought the man is losing it. now he has been proven right that we have no right whatever the grandmaster does.
I feel Evans defending is better than of Pique.
Evans 1 on 1 def should improve.
Vida & Rio r awesome 1 on 1 defending
Will evans like life on the bench when Rio comes back?
As a Sunderland fan, it’s great to see the lad pushing on. It was obvious from the start that he’s a class act.
Seems a canny kid too, he’s got his head screwed on, just wants to play football and get better – just wish it could have been with us!
Evans’s style is more like that of Rio, cutting out passes. Can’t recall a big header from him yet, something he can surely learn from Vidic. Also one thing about Evans, until now, I am still not entirely sure which foot he prefers, he seems to use his left foot more, but is equally good with his right, which is a very good asset to have, because attackers usually attack the weak side, like how O’Shea was skinned by Valencia that day
Nothing against the lad, but in a Champions league knock out match at the San Siro/Camp Nou/Bernabou etc if one of Rio or Vidic is missing, I would rather have our Wesley Brown back there. I am a huge fan of Wes.
@olusanjo, yes!!! not only vidic is benefitting from evans, whole of united we could say. but the point i want to put forward is, evans is not yet massive. he has a pretty good way to go. if you put another youngster alongside him, he becomes brittle. last night’s game is an example of that. this will improve with experience and how quickly he can master his trade at the back…
its great watching someone who grew up five minutes away from me doing so well at Old Trafford. Going to Northern Ireland games I have known about evans potential for some time. In his debut he had Torres in his back pocket! there is no doubt evans is benefiting from playing along side vidic and rio. lets hope his younger brother is as good