Luke Young admits he'll leave Villa Park this summer

[steve-67]

Absolutely amazing. We paid over the top for him at over 5mill and then refuse to play him. I still think to this day that he's just about the best English right back out there. Certainly better than Glen Johnson, who is a crap defender but good going forward. If there was any truth in the rumours recently that Randy and MON had had words, the way Luke Young has been treated, and the amount we paid for him, without playing him, would arguably be on of the reasons for that rift. I like MON 90% of the time, Luke Young's story at Villa represents the other 10%. I would play him every game. I can only presume that there is a problem between Young and MON that we don't know about.

[Pelle]

Luke Young not being played is one of the few issues I have with MON. Can't see why he hasn't played him more and had Cuellar there instead, who himself is a really good CD. But, on the other hand, our defensive record speaks for itself this season, so I might have to admit that maybe MON knows better. But still, it's hard to say what would've happened had he played him more. Impossible, really. I wanted him to stay, but gave up on those hopes a long time ago. Just hope now that we can find a better rb who's actually being played there.

[YLN]

Absolutely amazing. We paid over the top for him at over 5mill and then refuse to play him. I still think to this day that he's just about the best English right back out there. Certainly better than Glen Johnson, who is a crap defender but good going forward. If there was any truth in the rumours recently that Randy and MON had had words, the way Luke Young has been treated, and the amount we paid for him, without playing him, would arguably be on of the reasons for that rift. I like MON 90% of the time, Luke Young's story at Villa represents the other 10%. I would play him every game. I can only presume that there is a problem between Young and MON that we don't know about.

So in your assessment £5 million was too much for England's best right back

[steve-67]

Absolutely amazing. We paid over the top for him at over 5mill and then refuse to play him. I still think to this day that he's just about the best English right back out there. Certainly better than Glen Johnson, who is a crap defender but good going forward. If there was any truth in the rumours recently that Randy and MON had had words, the way Luke Young has been treated, and the amount we paid for him, without playing him, would arguably be on of the reasons for that rift. I like MON 90% of the time, Luke Young's story at Villa represents the other 10%. I would play him every game. I can only presume that there is a problem between Young and MON that we don't know about.

So in your assessment £5 million was too much for England's best right back

No you plank, I'm saying play him. He's the best right back we have and worth every penny. I am disagreeing with MON!!

[theboyangel]

Absolutely amazing. We paid over the top for him at over 5mill and then refuse to play him. I still think to this day that he's just about the best English right back out there. Certainly better than Glen Johnson, who is a crap defender but good going forward. If there was any truth in the rumours recently that Randy and MON had had words, the way Luke Young has been treated, and the amount we paid for him, without playing him, would arguably be on of the reasons for that rift. I like MON 90% of the time, Luke Young's story at Villa represents the other 10%. I would play him every game. I can only presume that there is a problem between Young and MON that we don't know about.

So in your assessment £5 million was too much for England's best right back

No you plank, I'm saying play him. He's the best right back we have and worth every penny. I am disagreeing with MON!!

I think your opening line of 'We paid over the top for him at over 5mill' probably accounted for the reply - slightly ambiguous to the remainder of the content :|

[sir_gary_cahill]

you said we paid over the top for him and then proceed to say he's the best english rb....

[steve-67]

My apologies. I am disagreeing with MON, that's my point.

We did pay over the top for him at the time of the transfer but the money turned out to be well spent.

[TrentVilla]

From a practical standpoint this isn't actually going to have a big effect on the team - Luke hasn't really played so to an extent we won't really miss him.

From a squad point of view, we're selling a good player in a position where a good player would be welcome, we'll need a replacement who is good enough to be our number one right back, but flexible enough to sometimes back Cuellar up.

In essence, it's a strange decision to sell Luke Young so that we can go out and look for a player like Luke Young.

I'm guessing that at his age and with his experience he doesn't want to be a back up full back (even if he is back up on both sides) and I think that's fair enough.

Personally I don't agree that Cuellar is a better right back than Young, but that's a decision the manager has to make and he's made it. He'll live and die by that decision, it's what he gets paid for, he'll back his own judgement and I guess it's good that he's in a position where he's trusted to do that - we can only hope he's right and hope he has a plan for the space that Young leaves in the squad.

I would guess there are a number of mid-table Premiership sides who would take an interest, the likes of Fulham, West Ham etc. Hopefully there's enough interest out that to provide us with a good price.

I agree with a vast majority of this the only point I'd pick you up on that I see differently is the opening line that it won't effect the team much, while he hasn't played much Luke Young is the only cover we have not just at RB but also at LB. If we sell Luke Young not only do we need to buy a RB but we need to buy a LB.

Say we sell Luke for £4m, forgetting the amount we are losing on him we are going to have to spend far more than that I'd imagine to get cover for both positions to the level of Young.

Given that O'Neill struggles when it comes to signing full backs and it would appear we might have a limited budget I think the sale of Young could have quite an impact this summer.

[Brumerican]

I remember Neil Lennon a while back saying that if you aren't in the the first 11 then O'Neill rarely gives you the time of day or something to that effect.

[Silent_Bob]

Even though I think he is our best right back, I'm not sure our defence is better with him in it.

MON prefers a formation with three central defenders and one full back. Which means it's Warnock that is keeping him out of the team, not Cuellar. Our defensive unit worked quite well, so it's difficult to break into the team.

Warnock is better than Young at left back, Cuellar is better at the right side than the left side, which is why Luke Young find it hard to force his way into the team. Even though I feel sorry for him, as he didn't have a good pre season for several reasons, I still think he should stay and fight for his place.

[Stu_The_Villan]

A professional footballer who gets paid as much in a week as most of us earn in a year and also gets more time off to mourn the loss of his brother than anyone would ever get in most other jobs hasn't been treated fairly? No he simply isn't first choice, thats got nothing to do with being treated unfairly.

If he goes, well he goes he won't be a huge loss, I'd prefer him to stay but its his choice really

Not really HIS choice though s it Bicks, its MoN's. Considering the speculation on this board regarding the loss of his brother being the reason for him not playing, it actually turns out that hes in the shape of his life (his words not mine) and feels that hes being unfairly left out of the side. Which i would have to agree with.

The search for a RB goes on. At this rate we might get a decent one in 20 years time

[rjshare]

From a practical standpoint this isn't actually going to have a big effect on the team - Luke hasn't really played so to an extent we won't really miss him.

From a squad point of view, we're selling a good player in a position where a good player would be welcome, we'll need a replacement who is good enough to be our number one right back, but flexible enough to sometimes back Cuellar up.

In essence, it's a strange decision to sell Luke Young so that we can go out and look for a player like Luke Young.

I'm guessing that at his age and with his experience he doesn't want to be a back up full back (even if he is back up on both sides) and I think that's fair enough.

Personally I don't agree that Cuellar is a better right back than Young, but that's a decision the manager has to make and he's made it. He'll live and die by that decision, it's what he gets paid for, he'll back his own judgement and I guess it's good that he's in a position where he's trusted to do that - we can only hope he's right and hope he has a plan for the space that Young leaves in the squad.

I would guess there are a number of mid-table Premiership sides who would take an interest, the likes of Fulham, West Ham etc. Hopefully there's enough interest out that to provide us with a good price.

I agree with a vast majority of this the only point I'd pick you up on that I see differently is the opening line that it won't effect the team much, while he hasn't played much Luke Young is the only cover we have not just at RB but also at LB. If we sell Luke Young not only do we need to buy a RB but we need to buy a LB.

Say we sell Luke for £4m, forgetting the amount we are losing on him we are going to have to spend far more than that I'd imagine to get cover for both positions to the level of Young.

Given that O'Neill struggles when it comes to signing full backs and it would appear we might have a limited budget I think the sale of Young could have quite an impact this summer.

thats not actually true is it trent? as things stand, we have shorey and beye so if we assume carlos is now a right back, we have two players for each full back position. as far as i am concerned though luke young is a better player than all of the other four!

in my opinion young and warnock are the second best full backs for their respective sides in england. mon sees things differently from me and he is the only one that really matters but from the available evidence i really really strongly feel that he has got this all wrong.

[TrentVilla]

thats not actually true is it trent? as things stand, we have shorey and beye so if we assume carlos is now a right back, we have two players for each full back position. as far as i am concerned though luke young is a better player than all of the other four!

in my opinion young and warnock are the second best full backs for their respective sides in england. mon sees things differently from me and he is the only one that really matters but from the available evidence i really really strongly feel that he has got this all wrong.

I'm working on the assumption and I think its a fairly safe one that neither of those players are in O'Neill's plans or likely to be here next season.

[bickster]

No its definitely his choice, no one can force a player under contract to leave, see the NRC topic for proof of that

Who has ever said that its the loss of his brother that is keeping him out of the team? I remember MON saying the death of his brother might have affected him and his decision to retire from international football but not that he wasn't playing him because of that

Someone also said that Luke Young was better than Delaney, that is simply wrong imo

The other rumour is that Luke Young slags off MON at every available opportunity and has done for some good time, if thats true its hardly showing your loyalty to the team and maybe that is why he doesn't play as often.

[rjshare]

A professional footballer who gets paid as much in a week as most of us earn in a year and also gets more time off to mourn the loss of his brother than anyone would ever get in most other jobs hasn't been treated fairly? No he simply isn't first choice, thats got nothing to do with being treated unfairly.

If he goes, well he goes he won't be a huge loss, I'd prefer him to stay but its his choice really

it is being treated unfairly if the reason he is not first choice is because of favouritism towards the other player keeping him out of the side. in his (and my) opinion the team doesnt appear to be being picked on merit alone.

no player is a huge loss, even man utd didnt look much like they missed the most expensive player of all time really, but having waited for so bl00dy long for us to finally sort out the right back position i am surprised that you are quite so blasé about us possibly letting one go who is as good as anyone we have had since kenny swain.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

The more I think about this the more it pisses me off. Pathetic management by MON. Luke Young is way too good to be on our bench behind Cuellar, we'll regret losing him, and MON will probably sign some shit, value for money right back with PL or SPL experience, or even better, Cuellar might be our full time, long term right back.

[rjshare]

thats not actually true is it trent? as things stand, we have shorey and beye so if we assume carlos is now a right back, we have two players for each full back position. as far as i am concerned though luke young is a better player than all of the other four!

in my opinion young and warnock are the second best full backs for their respective sides in england. mon sees things differently from me and he is the only one that really matters but from the available evidence i really really strongly feel that he has got this all wrong.

I'm working on the assumption and I think its a fairly safe one that neither of those players are in O'Neill's plans or likely to be here next season.

i assumed you were assuming that - i dont think many of us even think of shorey as even being a villa player any more, but never the less he may (as might beye) still be with us come august.

if they do both go i cant for the life of me think of two players we could sign as back up though who are going to be good enough for a top half side and yet happy to watch three quarters of our games from the bench.

[Wainy316]

It's a **** joke and I don't think we'll get another right back anywhere near as good.

Best right back to play for Villa during my supportership and that's no understatement.

At least he knows he's wanted by the fans.

[bickster]

but if he doesn't want to be here, theres little point in keeping him here, might as well get some cash and get a replacement. I did say I'd prefer him to stay, I think he's a decent player but he's being kept out of the side because of tactical reasons more than anything. MON plays Cuellar because its more a case of playing three central defenders and no right back, we don't need a right back because we have plenty of fluid midfielders who all naturally attack down the right and because of that fluidity we need to shore up the defence a bit more, we don't have as many midfielders who naturally play down the left so we need Warnock to overlap more. If Milner goes that whole dynamic could completely change depending on who the replacement is

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Meh.

He just wants to go back to London.