Ole Gunnar Solskjaer today confirmed reports that Ashley Young is set for a move to Inter Milan, where he will join familiar faces Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez.
Well, to be fair, I think it was for Ashley, you know. He is 35 in the summer and, if he gets a two-year contract somewhere, I think it’s up to him to take that. We weren’t ready to offer that. He’s been a good servant for the club. He’s been captain and he’s won trophies, leagues, cups, but we’ve got players coming through. So it was time now, then. When Ashley’s head and mindset was on ‘yeah, I want to try this’, why not do it now?
When this situation came up, and we’ve the options we’ve got at full-back. You’ve got Brandon, who has really come through and developed. Aaron has been fantastic.
Luke is potentially one of the best left-backs in England, for me. Then we’ve got Diogo and Tim [Fosu-Mensah] – they’re both fit. You’ve got loads of full-backs.
Ashley’s mindset was that he wanted to try a new adventure and he he’s approaching 35 now. He’s done a fantastic job and he’s served this club fantastically. I think it was an opportunity for him that we had to say yes to. We got a transfer fee for someone who’s been so loyal to the club. Good luck. That’s what Manchester United do, you have players for a long time and then they move on and someone else steps in.
Solskjaer has confirmed that Harry Maguire will be the captain going forward, as he has been when Young has missed out on a place in the starting line-up, thanks to the excellent leadership qualities he’s shown thus far.
Harry has been wearing the captain’s armband and he will keep wearing it. He’s come in and been a leader in the group. I’ve been, not surprised, but I’ve been impressed by his leadership skills, so Harry will keep on wearing the armband. He’s come in and everything about him tells me he is a leader. He’s part of a group that we’ve had, that have been leading this young group. Ashley has been of course, Marcus is a young lad, but also David, Harry. So Harry will keep on wearing the armband now.
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