Ashley Young

[LeeB]

If we can't get NZogbia, I think we should go for Junior Hoilett.

Get both and fuck off Downing. Trouser £10m and sign a top left back.

[oldtimernow]

Don't think  he'll (AY) be around when the new manager is appointed unless the manager makes it a condition of employment

[LeeB]

Don't think he'll be around when the new manager is appointed unless the manager makes it a condition of employment

I wonder how many managers would want this when the alternative is that there's an £18m hole in next seasons transfer budget because Young walks away at the end of the season.

[saunders_heroes]

And how many other players wouldnt have even bothered to say that in an interview.  He is doing things properly - he is still under contract to us.  Unlike Fat Barry did.

What has he done that's so different to what Barry did?

Well so far, Ashley has'nt gone running to the NOTW saying how much he wants to leave and that he'd only leave Villa for a Champs League Club. I remember the article well, two pages long, a picture of Bazza lying down looking depressed etc...

If he was as honest as Barry he would have done.
File Young in with Milner in the snide, "we haven't got the balls to admit we want out" file.

No, that's bollocks mate.

He's a professional footballer, and he has the opportunity to further his career significantly. He's probably given us more than anyone in the last four years, we'll still get a decent fee so good look to him, I think wherever he goes he'll be a star.

I agree with you but you've missed my point. I don 't blame Young for wanting to leave. He's given everything to the Villa cause in the last 4.5 years and owes us nothing. My point was about the stick Barry gets for being honest, where as Milner is almost patted on the back by many Villa fans despite staying here just a couple of years and then sneaking out the back door as soon as there's a big bid for him.

[LeeB]

Barry wasn't honest though. He made up some shit about O'Neill ignoring him through the summer, and only wanting champions league football in a massive spread in the filthiest rag of them all.

He dragged us through the mud for his own ends, the fat fuck.

[pauliewalnuts]

Barry honest?

In that article begging to be allowed to leave (which, while it may be honest in some respects, was pathetically short of tact), he cited one of the reasons he wanted to leave as "I need to play in my best position week in, week out, if i want to go to the World Cup" - despite O'Neill having transformed him from a half decent player to a regular England starter.

Milner's exit was understandable, if ill-judged in some ways.

Young's exit is inevitable, and understandable if it is Man United.

Barry's exit was sordid, tactless and slightly embarassing for all concerned.

[saunders_heroes]

I didn't see anything sordid in Barry's exit. He was honest enough to admit he wanted out, and he got his wish. Young and Milner dodged questions and gave cliched answers to all questions regarding their futures and organised their Villa exits without admitting it to Villa fans.
Milner's exit was as snide and sneaky as any player ever to leave our club and it looks like Young's will be the same. Barry gets slagged off because he was honest even though he gave 11 years service to Aston Villa.

[pauliewalnuts]

So there's nothing sordid about that newspaper article?

[lovejoy]

Let's be fair - Barry stuck around through some pretty thin times.

[pauliewalnuts]

Let's be fair - Barry stuck around through some pretty thin times.

Mainly because not that many people wanted him.

Although I do remember him wanting to be allowed to join Portsmouth.

[kippaxvilla2]

Correct - until MO'N joined, Barry was about to join Portsmouth under Harry.  His departure was embarrassing in the sense of that article and the subsequent misguided, slightly ridiculous letter of apology/please understand me to the fans in the Mail.  Young has been different.  I genuinely think he wanted Villa to achieve his ambitions, he definitely has an affinity for Villa, you can see that in the way he plays/cares every week.  But it looks as though he has got the opportunity to go onto join arguably the biggest club in the world and if he leaves Villa for that, then I for one will wish him well because it will be as much a footballing decision as one driven by financial gain. 

[oldtimernow]

sorry but footballing decisions and financial gain cannot be separated in the modern game we currently have.

Fifa's a prime example of that....wait till the newly formed FA of tinky tonky manages to win the next World Cup staging.

A player's agent will never let his client stay around for footballing decisions..lets face it the sooner Manure have signed all the best players and loan out the ones they can't play, we are going to see this go on and on and on....