Ashley Young made a great start to his Manchester United career, much to the surprise of many fans, myself included, who hadn’t been able to understand why we had spent so much on only a half decent player who was in the last year of their contract.
Still, he came out with all the right stuff when he signed, talking about us being the biggest club in the world and how it was a dream come true. He then put in a few great performances and scored some top goals, including two against Arsenal in our 8-2 win.
Since then, with injuries regularly getting the better of him, it’s easy to see that Young just isn’t United quality. He’s alright and he can give you a good shift, like City away this season, but you could name his great games on one hand and that is nowhere near good enough for a player who has been at the club for almost two seasons.
Talking purely from a statistical point of view, Young has started 17 games this season, has 0 goals and just 3 assists. That works out at a goal and/or assist every 457 minutes on the pitch, or a goal/assist for almost every 8 hours he plays. It’s an awful return, particularly when you compare it with Nani, who has had a poor season himself by his standards with a goal/assist every 182 minutes (every 3 hours).
Sir Alex Ferguson has today confirmed that Young won’t play again this season. Whilst it’s always better to have more players available at this crucial part of the season, I’m fairly pleased if it means we will see more of Shinji Kagawa, albeit out of position on the left.
“Ashley is out for the season,” the boss told MUTV. “It’s unfortunate and it’s a bad blow. We thought it’d be maybe two or three weeks but now he’s been down to the specialist and that’s why you saw him at the game on Wednesday. We took him down to a specialist in London and the prognosis was not very good at all. We’re going to lose him for the rest of the season.”
