Return to Watford on the Mind of Ashley Young
Time With the Hornets
Young had had interest from bigger clubs during his late teen years but remained local to the Hornets. In the club podcast, he also said: “There was interest from West Ham at the time, there was interest from Aston Villa, there was talk of Tottenham.”
However, his response to the offers was: “No, Watford is my club, I don’t want to leave. I’ve just got promotion with a club I started at when I was 10, I’m not ready to leave”.
He didn’t make it to the pitch many times that season, appearing just five times and scoring three goals. For the majority of the season, Young didn’t even make it to the bench.
Young’s first full 90 minutes didn’t come until September 2004, once again when facing Millwall.
He featured 107 times in all competitions before he left for Aston Villa after four years with Watford.
After Watford
In January 2007, Aston Villa completed the signing of Young for a fee of £8 million – the highest the club had paid for a player at the time. He scored on his debut a week after signing.
During his time at Villa, he picked up plenty of Player of the Month Awards, as well as the PFA Young Player of the Year award in 2009.
The winger scored 39 in 190 appearances before transferring to Manchester United.
He had a prolific career at United until the later seasons when the fans turned against him, despite picking up the Club Captain title in August 2019.
Young joined Inter in January 2020 in a six-month deal and has been a key player for the Serie A side. The contract was followed up with another with a one-season extension. The defender is set to be staying in Milan until the end of the 2020/21 season.
“I loved everything about the club, to this day I love everything about the club. It’s what I say is home for me.”
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