| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again 16:32 - Jan 13 with 1216 views | unstableblue |
… well certainly at full back.
He just doesn’t have pace now to play in that role. People can get past him, beat him to through balls. He resorted to the dark arts and yellow Saturday to make up for it. And that was against Blackpool.
Maybe as a sub to shore things up, or add creativity into central midfield.
Shame because he’s great on the ball and his passing is excellent.
Playing at 40 is incredible. And am sure he’s adding lots to the dressing room. |  |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 16:40 - Jan 13 with 1159 views | davblue |
i think you have to say on the pitch it hasn't been a successful signing so far. I didn't expect him to play every week, but thought he might have got a bit more game time.
Off the pitch, im sure he's been great with the players, whether that's been worth 30k a week as is the rumoured weekly wage, only McKenna can tell us that! |  | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 18:58 - Jan 13 with 934 views | PositivelyPortman |
Yes I agree with the OP.
Give him a few minutes at the end of a game when we’re leading 3 nil perhaps, but definitely not a starter - or captain. |  |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:04 - Jan 14 with 697 views | gainsboroughblue |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 18:58 - Jan 13 by PositivelyPortman |
Yes I agree with the OP.
Give him a few minutes at the end of a game when we’re leading 3 nil perhaps, but definitely not a starter - or captain. |
I don't really see the point of that either.
That's the time to give a youngster minutes if anybody, not a 40 year old. |  |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:11 - Jan 14 with 669 views | _CliveBaker_ |
I don't think we'll see too much of him, feels like one of those where he's probably got a role to play through the cup campaign and busy schedule over the next 6 weeks, then he'll phase out. I'd be surprised if he plays many minutes at all beyond Feb and in to the 'business end', barring injuries. |  | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:25 - Jan 14 with 627 views | Churchman |
He looked well off the pace on Saturday. There’s no way he can start. I hope he was brought in for the experience; coaching aspect because as a player time waits for nobody. |  | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:29 - Jan 14 with 611 views | Mookamoo |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 18:58 - Jan 13 by PositivelyPortman |
Yes I agree with the OP.
Give him a few minutes at the end of a game when we’re leading 3 nil perhaps, but definitely not a starter - or captain. |
Would have liked to see Taylor given the captaincy on Saturday.
Has the correct temperament, isn't a loanee and has deserved it. |  | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:40 - Jan 14 with 554 views | TractorJack |
I still think if you are chasing a game late on against a low block he's a really good option. Sometimes you need to cross from deep and there's not many better than him at that. |  | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:41 - Jan 14 with 554 views | NedPlimpton |
Feels more and more like a bizarre signing for both parties
I'd imagine at 40 he needs to be playing far more regularly than he is in order to avoid rustiness. The less he plays the harder it's going to be to get back to match sharpness, yet he just gets a handful of minutes here and there
I'd imagine if he'd have gone to Watford he'd have been starting regularly and would also get the send off his career deserves at the end of the season. Rather than just coming to a quiet end here
McKenna has obviously worked with him in the past so must really value what he brings to the team behind the scenes, but did we really need a 4th RB on decent wages to fill that role? |  | | |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:41 - Jan 14 with 552 views | Zx1988 |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:25 - Jan 14 by Churchman |
He looked well off the pace on Saturday. There’s no way he can start. I hope he was brought in for the experience; coaching aspect because as a player time waits for nobody. |
I'm assuming that's the case.
I've never seen him out warming up with the other substitutes at half time, so I would hope that he's in the dressing room either learning from McKenna, or delivering his own coaching to the defensive players. |  |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:45 - Jan 14 with 544 views | _CliveBaker_ |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:41 - Jan 14 by NedPlimpton |
Feels more and more like a bizarre signing for both parties
I'd imagine at 40 he needs to be playing far more regularly than he is in order to avoid rustiness. The less he plays the harder it's going to be to get back to match sharpness, yet he just gets a handful of minutes here and there
I'd imagine if he'd have gone to Watford he'd have been starting regularly and would also get the send off his career deserves at the end of the season. Rather than just coming to a quiet end here
McKenna has obviously worked with him in the past so must really value what he brings to the team behind the scenes, but did we really need a 4th RB on decent wages to fill that role? |
At 40 years old perhaps that's nice for him though. Getting paid £2m for 1 final year, a move back closer to where he's from, playing a bit part, being at the same club as his son. He's got nothing to prove at this stage and is unlikely I would think to play beyond this season. It's a lovely gig.
Don't disagree about the merit in the signing though, I wasn't convinced it was the best use of funds then and I'm still not now. | | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:47 - Jan 14 with 532 views | FrimleyBlue |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:45 - Jan 14 by _CliveBaker_ |
At 40 years old perhaps that's nice for him though. Getting paid £2m for 1 final year, a move back closer to where he's from, playing a bit part, being at the same club as his son. He's got nothing to prove at this stage and is unlikely I would think to play beyond this season. It's a lovely gig.
Don't disagree about the merit in the signing though, I wasn't convinced it was the best use of funds then and I'm still not now. |
Also, KM lost Grant. Having Young behind the scenes may really help Mckenna
KM is 39, so although Young isn't much older at all.. it's still imo nice for KM to have someone with so much football experience with him, even if it's still as a player, that leadership nature will come through in the training sessions. similar to how we had it with Aluko imo. |  |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:53 - Jan 14 with 511 views | _CliveBaker_ |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:47 - Jan 14 by FrimleyBlue |
Also, KM lost Grant. Having Young behind the scenes may really help Mckenna
KM is 39, so although Young isn't much older at all.. it's still imo nice for KM to have someone with so much football experience with him, even if it's still as a player, that leadership nature will come through in the training sessions. similar to how we had it with Aluko imo. |
I don't disagree with that, we've had Keogh then Aluko, they've always felt like signings as much for the dressing room as the pitch. Difference is they've not been paid anything close to what Young reportedly is and when the budget is finite its fair to question where it's allocated. | | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:00 - Jan 14 with 483 views | rickw |
I thought he looked good in the team at the start of the season, maybe he was just a little rusty but I also noticed he seemed to be who Blackpool were targeting and it was working for them |  |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:02 - Jan 14 with 477 views | LankHenners |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:45 - Jan 14 by _CliveBaker_ |
At 40 years old perhaps that's nice for him though. Getting paid £2m for 1 final year, a move back closer to where he's from, playing a bit part, being at the same club as his son. He's got nothing to prove at this stage and is unlikely I would think to play beyond this season. It's a lovely gig.
Don't disagree about the merit in the signing though, I wasn't convinced it was the best use of funds then and I'm still not now. |
Wonder if we were slightly caught out by quite how '40-years-old' he was. I know Ashton drones on about 'moving parts' with transfers meaning you can't do everything you want at a time of your choosing, and he is right tbf, but it was a bit of a mess how we were still sorting out that RB position late in the day having already got 3 in the building.
As you say a bit expensive if we were simply bringing him in as a mentor figure. |  |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:13 - Jan 14 with 424 views | NedPlimpton |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 09:45 - Jan 14 by _CliveBaker_ |
At 40 years old perhaps that's nice for him though. Getting paid £2m for 1 final year, a move back closer to where he's from, playing a bit part, being at the same club as his son. He's got nothing to prove at this stage and is unlikely I would think to play beyond this season. It's a lovely gig.
Don't disagree about the merit in the signing though, I wasn't convinced it was the best use of funds then and I'm still not now. |
Yeah, possibly. Obviously we don't know Young's motives but I would have thought going back to the club he started at might have appealed more than being a bit-part player here
As others have said it's a very expensive way of having a good influence around the squad | | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:14 - Jan 14 with 418 views | tractorboy1978 |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:02 - Jan 14 by LankHenners |
Wonder if we were slightly caught out by quite how '40-years-old' he was. I know Ashton drones on about 'moving parts' with transfers meaning you can't do everything you want at a time of your choosing, and he is right tbf, but it was a bit of a mess how we were still sorting out that RB position late in the day having already got 3 in the building.
As you say a bit expensive if we were simply bringing him in as a mentor figure. |
Well he played 32 Prem games for Everton last season. I remember him being excellent against us at PR too where he played the full 90 mins. He did look 40 against Blackpool on Saturday though. | | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:14 - Jan 14 with 414 views | Metal_Hacker |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:13 - Jan 14 by NedPlimpton |
Yeah, possibly. Obviously we don't know Young's motives but I would have thought going back to the club he started at might have appealed more than being a bit-part player here
As others have said it's a very expensive way of having a good influence around the squad |
If it were just an influencer they wanted , how about Bonnie Blue ? |  |
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| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:19 - Jan 14 with 396 views | _CliveBaker_ |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:02 - Jan 14 by LankHenners |
Wonder if we were slightly caught out by quite how '40-years-old' he was. I know Ashton drones on about 'moving parts' with transfers meaning you can't do everything you want at a time of your choosing, and he is right tbf, but it was a bit of a mess how we were still sorting out that RB position late in the day having already got 3 in the building.
As you say a bit expensive if we were simply bringing him in as a mentor figure. |
Quite possibly. I rate a signing like that, we've got plenty of young players, a handful who have never played in this country before, we lost a lot of experience in the summer on and off the pitch and signing a player or 2 of his profile makes a lot of sense, he was never coming to start 46 games. KM knows him, knows he's probably one of those pros who sets high standards and raises the bar off the pitch, all good stuff. On the pitch he still brings some value and some versatility. My only issue is the reported salary (if true) feels out of whack and I'd question if we could've made it work harder for us.
Agree our recruitment didn't seem to go quite to plan, but McKenna is slowly shaping it into something coherent and this Jan window is a good time to finesse around the edges which we've started in letting Clarke and Hump go. We've loosely got 2 players for each position if we considered Young as a LB. Davis / Young, Furlong / Johnson. O'Shea / Greaves / Kipre / Baggott. Ideally we have a 4th senior CB but we've ridden that out pretty well thus far and injuries have been kind.
CM addition is inevitable, and a 9. We don't have loads to do, nor should we do loads IMO. | | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:33 - Jan 14 with 346 views | tractorboy1978 |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 10:19 - Jan 14 by _CliveBaker_ |
Quite possibly. I rate a signing like that, we've got plenty of young players, a handful who have never played in this country before, we lost a lot of experience in the summer on and off the pitch and signing a player or 2 of his profile makes a lot of sense, he was never coming to start 46 games. KM knows him, knows he's probably one of those pros who sets high standards and raises the bar off the pitch, all good stuff. On the pitch he still brings some value and some versatility. My only issue is the reported salary (if true) feels out of whack and I'd question if we could've made it work harder for us.
Agree our recruitment didn't seem to go quite to plan, but McKenna is slowly shaping it into something coherent and this Jan window is a good time to finesse around the edges which we've started in letting Clarke and Hump go. We've loosely got 2 players for each position if we considered Young as a LB. Davis / Young, Furlong / Johnson. O'Shea / Greaves / Kipre / Baggott. Ideally we have a 4th senior CB but we've ridden that out pretty well thus far and injuries have been kind.
CM addition is inevitable, and a 9. We don't have loads to do, nor should we do loads IMO. |
CM addition is interesting to me as it seems we really want Cairney but he isn't a Matusiwa backup. Makes me wonder if we might be looking for two signings in there. | | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 11:08 - Jan 14 with 264 views | bluelady |
Controversially I actually thought he grew into the game and got better second half which could be due to the match rustiness? First half i do remember saying to my friend oh dear his legs are shot.... |  | | |
| As good as Ashley Young is, I’m not sure he can start in the Champ again on 11:28 - Jan 14 with 208 views | tractordownsouth |
It's why I think Johnson will stay, or we'll sign a cheaper alternative if he goes. Wouldn't be comfortable with Young being the sole backup at right-back, especially as we'd only have 7 defenders in the squad in that situation. |  |
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