Michael Owen has today claimed that lifelong Manchester United fan, Jonny Evans, is the future of our club.

“Jonny is the future of Manchester United,” he said. “Obviously Rio is in his 30s now and has a good few years left but Jonny has the potential to be every bit as good and commanding as Rio. Jonny could play a full season at United and not look out of place but if he keeps improving he can be one of the key players at United for years to come. Jonny’s a very good player who has come up through the ranks and has been held in high regard his whole career. Ferdinand and Vidic are obviously top class centre halves so it says a lot for Jonny that he comes in when one of those guys is out and does so well. Last season we had quite a lot of injuries at centre half — we even played Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher there.”