ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP FINAL: STUART JAMEStalks to Aston Villa's Ashley Young as he prepares to face Manchester United at Wembley
ASHLEY YOUNG breaks into laughter as he listens to a few comments from Peter McParland about him in tomorrow’s League Cup final programme. “I like Ashley when he plays a straightforward game,” says the former Aston Villa winger, who scored twice against Manchester United in the 1957 FA Cup final and also grabbed the winner in the inaugural League Cup final four years later.
“Sometimes he annoys me when he mucks about – get on with it, you can skin these guys.” It is probably the closest anyone connected with Aston Villa has come to saying anything negative about Young during the past two years and even then it’s laced with a compliment. Young is still grinning as he politely points out he has not been “mucking about” on the wing this season, although he also acknowledges one of the reasons he has looked so impressive recently is he has adopted a more direct approach.
Gael Clichy discovered as much last month when, in the words of the Villa manager, Martin O’Neill, the Arsenal defender was “taken to the cleaners” by Young. Since then the 24-year-old has looked like the winger who won the PFA young player of the year award last season, with his return to what he describes as his “best form” coming as Villa prepare to take on Manchester United at Wembley tomorrow in their biggest match for a decade and Fabio Capello ponders his latest England squad.
“I think there’s been a lot said about the way that I’ve played this season and how I’ve not been at the same standard as last season,” says Young. “But I go out there to do well for the club, and the manager has always had faith in me to put me in the team. And I think if you look at my displays over the last couple of months, I’ve been delighted and the manager has been delighted and that’s all that matters.”
Alex Ferguson once talked about Ryan Giggs giving defenders “twisted blood” and when Young is at his exhilarating best, as he was in front of Capello’s assistant, Franco Baldini, against Burnley last weekend, he has a similar effect on opponents. For much of this season, however, he has been a marked man and he admits it has taken a subtle change in his play to allow him to break free from the shackles and make the penetrative runs on the flank that open up defences.
“I think [recently] I have been a lot more direct when I’ve got the ball,” says Young. “That’s my game, being direct and going at players. But there are obviously times where things became difficult and you have to work out a different strategy to break someone down. At times this season teams have doubled up or even tripled up. I can remember Portsmouth at home and coming in at half-time and the manager saying that I had three players around me.”
Manchester United will no doubt be paying close attention to Young on an afternoon when Villa will need their most influential players to be on form if they are to get their hands on a first trophy in 14 years. Young was still attending primary school when Brian Little and his players were celebrating Villa’s 1996 League Cup triumph over Leeds United but he had already decided back then that being a professional footballer was the only career that he wanted to pursue.
Riches have followed. From the diamond ear-stud to the designer watch and the brand new Porsche, the monetary rewards are there for all to see but it is days like tomorrow, when more than 30 of his family and friends will be at Wembley to see the most important club game of his career, that provide Young with the greatest motivation. “I’ll relish playing at Wembley in a major cup final,” he says. “It’s a great achievement for me and it’s why I became a footballer, because I want to win medals.”
There could be another chance of silverware in the FA Cup, where Villa take on Reading next weekend for a place in the semi-finals, and there is also the pursuit of a top-four finish in the Premier League. Throw in the prospect of travelling to South Africa in the summer as part of Capello’s England party – something that five of his Villa colleagues are also targeting – and it is easy to see why Young sounds so excited about the next few months. “I’ve been on best form for the last few weeks and if I can continue that until the end of the season then, fingers crossed, I do get on the plane to South Africa. But there are important things to take care of at Aston Villa at the moment. We’ve got a big game tomorrow, we’ve got the quarter-final of the FA Cup to look forward to and we’ve got the league as well. But hopefully I can keep my form going.”
He will certainly not struggle for opportunities. Young has started 35 of Villa’s 37 matches this season, more than any other player, and he admits O’Neill is wasting his time whenever he talks to him about watching a game from the sidelines and taking a breather. “There have been times when the manager has rested players here and I’ve been asked if I want to have a rest. But I don’t want to. I want to play every game.”
Hugging the left touchline is where he is happiest and no more so than when a drop of the shoulder has put the right-back on the seat of his pants. “It’s a great feeling when you know that you’ve got the beating of your man and you’re playing in a game where it feels like everything you do is coming off,” says Young. “Burnley was one of those games when I was just smiling throughout because things were going really well.” United will know they are in trouble if the grin is back on his face tomorrow. Young and his Villa team-mates cannot wait. “It has been a long while since we have won something but Villa is a massive club and it belongs in finals like this,” he says.
“We do want to change that part of the history that we haven’t won anything since 1996. As players we want to write ourselves into the history books and bring some silverware and now we’ve got the opportunity.”
