So would he nutmeg a six-year-old? Ashley Young is sitting at Bodymoor Heath, Aston Villa’s buzzing training ground, mulling over the extent of his competitive nature. Yes, he would, the 36-year-old concludes. It is about a hunger for winning undimmed by the passing of time, even in kickabouts with friends’ children.
Half an hour in Young’s thoughtful company reveals a perfectionist who cleans his own boots, teaches team-mates game management such as running down the clock, and who has embarked on coaching badges that will eventually lead to management. He is as lean and driven as his school-mate Lewis Hamilton. He has played in 671 matches, including 39 for England. He has won titles with Manchester United and Inter Milan, represented Villa in three separate decades and remains as hungry as when taking on older neighbours in games outside his Stevenage house with his three brothers.
He just wants the ball and wants to win. “I’m a nightmare at home after a defeat,” Young says. “My wife leaves me alone. I’m a winner. I do believe I was born a winner. I can’t lose in games.” Here is the evidence. When protecting a one-goal lead against Leicester City on Sunday, Young deliberately argued with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, ostensibly accusing him of diving, but mainly running down the clock and slowing Leicester’s momentum.
“I speak to the players about game management, whether it’s wasting time or we’re under the cosh and somebody needs to go down and take the sting out of the game,” Young says. “I won’t just do it in the match. I do it in training. The other players get annoyed about it. Say there’s a minute left in training and the ball goes out for a throw-in, I’ll just do things like: ‘The ball’s flat, we need to change the ball.’ It’s preparing for match day. If you’ve got that competitiveness 24-7 every day when you come into training, you’ll take that into a game.
“This season we’ve not game-managed well enough. I look back to the Wolves game [at home on October 16], winning 2-0, there’s ten minutes left, we end up losing 3-2. When we lose the first goal, if we manage the game properly, someone goes down, takes the sting out of the game, then we regroup. That person down gets treatment, everyone’s then on the side talking about: ‘This is what we need to do to get us through.’ It doesn’t happen. Wolves get a second goal and they’ve got the momentum.” He hated the defeat and the failure to stop the slide towards it.
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“I can’t lose here at training,” Young says. “If we have a small-sided game in training and I lose, I say to people, ‘Just avoid me, I’m a nightmare.’ I can’t lose to my kids. Speaking to my friends and their kids and they go, ‘Well, we need to let the kids win.’ No. If they win, they win but they’ve got to work for it.” So he would be nutmegging a six-year-old in the garden if the opportunity arose. “Oh, yeah I am. Nothing comes free in life. You’ve got to work for everything. Because that’s the way I was brought up.”
When his 32-year-old brother Lewis retired at Crawley Town last week, Young posted in praise of his competitive spirit. “We are determined fighters, it’s in our nature,” he wrote. Where does that come from? “That fight, that drive, that hunger comes from mum and dad,” Young says. “They were fighters. They always fought for us, fought to make sure we got the best. They did everything they possibly could to make sure we were at football training and had boots. Mum did a few cleaning jobs. Dad worked in computers. He was away a lot, working nights, earning a living to make sure we were all right.
“That [fighting spirit] goes through me and my brothers. We used to fight in the house non-stop. That’s why I’ve got scars on my head. It was good. For mum it was a nightmare. Everything she bought, we broke. She bought this [ornamental] swan once. She specifically said that day, ‘Don’t play football in the house.’ We said, ‘No, no, no.’ Anyway, we broke the swan’s head off. We superglued it. As kids, we said, ‘She’s not going to notice that.’ She walked through the front door, walked in the living room and said, ‘Who broke the swan?’ How’s that possible? You can’t see the join.
“Where we lived in our cul-de-sac, there were so many kids and in summer it was breakfast 9am, out from 10am to 10pm playing. When I was 12, 13, we were playing a men’s team every Wednesday. There was no mercy. They didn’t hold back at all. When they kicked me, they didn’t help me back up. They didn’t care. ‘Get on with it.’ It toughened me up. That drives me now.”
He was told he was too small to make it. “I’m not much bigger now,” Young says, laughing. He convinced Watford of his qualities through sheer endeavour. Making his professional debut as an 18-year-old for Watford in 2003, and promptly scoring against Millwall, Young entered a demanding dressing room. “I didn’t get bullied but they were tough on me, hard,” he recalls of that Watford side. “I had Sean Dyche, Neil Cox, Neal Ardley and Paul Devlin to name a few. They’re not going to go easy on you. They’re going to kick you in training and expect you to get up. I used to think sometimes it’s over the top but they weren’t, they were doing it to get the best for me.
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“I spoke to Sean Dyche the other day and said, ‘I remember how tough you were.’ Sean said, ‘We were tough on you because we saw you had talent and you wanted to work, you had the desire to get to the top. We had to be that way because you’re coming to a men’s game.’ You still need that.” It underpinned his journey to Villa in 2007, then on to United, Inter, and now back to Villa.
It is one of the many reasons why Young is so appreciated by Villa staff, initially by Dean Smith, who brought him in on a free from Inter last summer, and now Steven Gerrard. Young challenges and helps Villa’s array of young talent. “The youngsters who have come training with us from the under-23s have been unbelievable,” he says. “I speak to them. There are times where I’ve pulled one or two. I’ve been hard on a couple of them because I want to see their reaction.
“They accept it because they are good characters, strong enough to be in and around the first team and take in the standards the players set. Little things need to be done, day in,day out, not just now and again. I tell them, ‘If you want to be in the first team you have to give 100 per cent day in, day out or somebody else will take your spot.’
“My standards have been there from when I was Watford. Things that young players are not allowed to do now, like cleaning boots, I do. I’ve been walking off the training pitch and I’m still cleaning my own boots. I was speaking to the kit man Riggers [Steve Rigby] and he said, ‘Since you’ve come here and you’ve cleaned your own boots a lot of players have started to do it.’ ”
Young’s deep well of motivation springs from other sources. “There was racism growing up, of course. I remember one game when I was nine. It got a bit fiery, a bit intense and there was a racist slur at me. The referee did nothing. I lost my head. I was at a young age, I used to see red, and I was gone. I talked to my dad after the game about it, and I was in tears. We sat as a family, and talked about the racism they endured coming here from Jamaica, dealing with it in the best way.
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“Racism is still there. There has been some progress. There are people who boo us and people who cheer us. People have to understand what the players are actually taking the knee for. It goes way back. My kids know who Martin Luther King is because I’ve taught them. There needs to be more of an understanding in schools.
“This is another thing: it’s Black History ‘Month’. It should be throughout the year. Not just black history but learning different cultures, different races, sexuality, everyone, everything. Social media [companies] can do more to tackle racism. There has to be more from the governing bodies: Uefa, Fifa. A fine is nothing.
“Teams have walked off, players have walked off, will it stop it? We spoke about it at the last World Cup. We were going to Russia, a country renowned for racism. Whatever [President] Putin did [clamping down on the racists during the tournament], there was nothing. My family was out there for the whole duration. They said it was an unbelievable World Cup. They never saw or heard anything.”
Young announced his international retirement after his tireless performances at left wing back during the 2018 World Cup, ending on the semi-final in Moscow. Arguably his best displays for England came as a No 10 in qualifying for Euro 2012. He never let his country down.
In the tribal realm of club football, of course, Young was booed at the start of the month by Manchester City fans because of his United connections and will doubtless be jeered at Anfield on Saturday. “I get it from everyone,” Young says, laughing. “I take it as a massive compliment. They don’t boo bad players.” He loved his return to Old Trafford on September 25. “The applause was unbelievable.”
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The former United captain also returns on January 10 in the FA Cup, bringing back memories of the United party after winning the Cup in 2016. His son, Tyler, and Michael Carrick’s son, Jacey, led the singsong back in the Corinthia Hotel in London. “I kept on looking at my watch, 4am, 5am and they were still going, the two of them, standing on the backs of sofas, singing non-stop, getting everyone going. Great times.”
Leaving aside the club rivalries, shouldn’t such a model pro be more properly appreciated for such a fantastic career? “Of course we all want to be loved but all that matters to me is I’m loved by the people closest to me, family, players, coaching staff, people around this training ground. I don’t look on it as ‘a fantastic career’. OK, yes, it’s been really good but I’m still playing, I still want to achieve.
“That’s where it goes back to the fight, desire, hunger. Age is just a number. I’ve still got plenty to give, plenty in my legs. My diet’s changed. I’m not eating as much rubbish food as when I was younger. I could never go vegetarian. Breakfast will be omelette, eggs, toast, always a cup of tea. I drink tea non-stop. Then spaghetti bolognese pre-match. I know how to fuel my body.”
He was sad to see Smith go. “Of course, it’s sad to see anybody leave. Dean’s an incredible man. He brought me back to the club, something I’ll be forever thankful for. Hopefully he can achieve good things with Norwich. Dean brought Villa back to where it should definitely be, in the Premier League. For me, a club of this massive size should be back in Europe.”
Europa League qualification is his first target. “From there, we should then go and start challenging for top four. That’s where the players want to be [in the Champions League]. That’s where the fans want to be. The Holte End’s like a 12th man. The whole stadium. The fans here are incredible, always behind the team, especially the last few games at home the noise has been unbelievable. You come out for the warm-up and it’s: ‘The fans are with us.’ You get times when things are not going well and fans get on your back, and they’ve got every right to because they see this club, a massive club, should be in Europe.
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“The owners now want that to happen, they’re putting the money into it. The manager [Gerrard] has now come in, he’s had that taste of Europe [at Rangers]. He’s been unbelievable since he came in. He came in at a difficult time and got everyone onside. He’s a winner. He has the same passion as a manager as he had as a player.
“He’s a good leader off the pitch. When you’ve played at the very highest level, it’s not only what you do on the pitch, it’s off it. It’s little things around the training ground, being a leader, tidiness, taking control, and if people are not pulling their weight, you tell them, whether you’re a youngster or a senior, you tell them. We’re four games into the manager coming, we’ve changed the style of play, and everybody’s bought into what the manager wants.
“He’s got a great team behind him,” Young adds of Gary McAllister, Michael Beale, Tom Culshaw, Scott Mason and Jordan Milsom, who all followed Gerrard from Rangers. “They’ve been brilliant as well.”
All the players are responding. Ollie Watkins looks revitalised as a central striker. “Ollie’s good,” Young begins, “and he could be incredible. He’s an unbelievable talent. I’d say he’s best as a 9. But we’ve been playing with two 10s as well and he can play there — they’re not left winger or right winger, they’re close together. Ollie has all the attributes to be a top striker. He’s got the finishing, passing, hold-up play, heading. You can’t get him off the training pitch. ‘Come on, Ollie, it’s time to go inside.’ He’s always there wanting to be better. There’s so many players hungry for success here.” Just like Ashley Young.
