The right-back never played with the winger, but had faced him prior to his own Villa Park switch.
Aston Villa defender Alan Hutton has revealed to the club’s official Facebook page that former star Ashley Young was the toughest opponent he had faced prior to his move to Villa Park.
Hutton is five-and-a-half years into his spell in Birmingham, having joined the then-Premier League mainstays from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2011.
The 32-year-old has come in for criticism amongst certain sections of the club’s fanbase ever since his arrival, but has racked up 125 appearances in his stint so far.
He has remained the club’s first-choice right-back in the Championship thus far this season and is one of the only constants in a perpetually-changing landscape at Villa.
Now, in an interview with the club’s Facebook account, he has named a former Villa hero as the best player he had come up against prior to his move to B6.
Hutton revealed: “Ashley Young [was the toughest]. He can go both ways, down the line, cut inside. He can cross well with his right foot and it’s hard to stop.”
Villa fans still have fond memories of Young’s successful time at the club, where he became a leading star of the Martin O’Neill era which brought three consecutive top-six finishes and progression to the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup.
He left for Manchester United in 2011 after 38 goals in 190 games for Villa, and though he and Hutton missed out on crossing paths as Villa teammates by a few weeks, Hutton clearly had a nightmare or two against the former Watford star during his time at Spurs.
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