Manchester United were offered the opportunity to sign Youri Tielemans towards the end of 2018-19.
The Belgian was leaving Monaco and Old Trafford was among the more favoured destinations. Paul Pogba’s future at United was uncertain, so there appeared a gap in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad.
At the age of 21, Tielemans was coming off a successful four-month loan at Leicester City, having captained Anderlecht four years earlier, and was highly regarded in Europe. Leicester wanted to make his move permanent but Tielemans was minded to wait to see if United made a proper approach.
Tielemans realised he would be a back-up to Pogba, who was told that June he would not be allowed to leave United, and so the Belgian mentally committed to returning to Leicester once he was back from his holiday.
United decided against signing a midfielder that summer, instead moving for Donny van de Beek in 2020.
Then, in the summer of 2022, according to sources, speaking — like others in this piece — on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, figures at United discussed Tielemans again. He had a year left on his Leicester contract and would have been available for a competitive fee. Erik ten Hag considered Tielemans a good player but preferred a different blend, sanctioning the free signing of Christian Eriksen and pushing strongly for Frenkie de Jong. United ended up signing Casemiro for an initial £60million.
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At that stage, club scouts seemed to have reservations on Tielemans, despite him scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final a year earlier. Later, United’s recruitment department expressed doubts over Declan Rice’s suitability at the price of £100m.
A third opportunity rolled around the following year when Tielemans was a free agent. He assessed his options as his contract at Leicester ticked down, yet many of Europe’s biggest sides harboured reservations. United, although they had long appreciated the player, never considered him, after he had been relegated with Leicester. They signed Mason Mount instead.
“The timing was never good,” says one close observer. “Here, the stars aligned.”
Pertinently, sources close to the player explained Tielemans’ agency and United had a relationship, so dialogue remained open. For instance, Tielemans’ agent, Bob Claes, was formerly the chief executive officer at Standard Liege.
Although Villa would end up signing him at the age of 26, scouts and recruitment specialists insisted there was a perception that Tielemans’ best days were behind him.
Even if, in theory, he should have been approaching the peak of his career, he had been a senior professional for a decade, having made his Anderlecht debut aged 16 years, two months and 21 days. It was felt by some in the industry that the matches were racking up — having played for the Brussels club, Monaco in France’s Ligue 1, and Leicester, plus over 50 senior internationals — which were taking a toll on his performances. Put plainly, he was burnt out.
As Leicester were relegated from the Premier League, Tielemans’ form regressed at the worst possible time, with him entering free agency. To his surprise, this meant potential suitors — including United and Arsenal — whom he hoped to attract, fell away.
illa took the opposite view and felt the quality he provided could not be ignored. Their recruitment team ran critical numbers on his data and the feedback suggested being part of a failing team was proving detrimental to his development, rather than any physical decline.
Villa had initiated contact with the Belgian’s representatives in the January, five months before they signed him. He was their first-choice target for the No 8 position and when he was presented to Unai Emery as an option, he gave the green light.
Emery went to Tielemans’ house to convince him of the Villa project, with a high salary, due to him signing for nothing, a byproduct. Importantly, as Villa sources point out, a release clause was inserted at the request of the player’s side and the club felt it was essential for the move to be completed. It was a Catch-22. They felt, despite some of the top clubs falling away, there was still intense competition for his signature.
“The biggest question marks surrounded his mobility and dynamism, but when Unai’s game is so much about positioning and structure, this alleviated those concerns,” says one senior source. “We essentially thought that ‘bigger’ clubs might look at his most recent and largely disappointing season for a relegated club and judge him on that more exclusively than taking a step back and looking at, or appreciating more deeply, the entirety of his career.”
Members of Villa’s scouting team, who had been working at other Premier League clubs then, had been watching Tielemans since he was 16, when he was captaining Anderlecht. They were aware of positive character references and how well-regarded he was across Europe.
“He’s just so good. What a player,” one Aston Villa employee told The Athletic last year, after Tielemans swept the club’s end-of-season awards for the 2024-25 campaign.
