‘My old teammate’: Sky pundit can’t believe Aston Villa’s Ashley Young is still playing

Follow us on Google Discover

Stephen Warnock has lauded his former teammate, Ashley Young, and how he is still going great guns in the colours of European-chasing, Aston Villa.

The former Villa left-back stated that Ashley Young, at 37, ‘looks great, fit and hungry’, as Unai Emery aims to guide the Midlands club to an unexpected European finish this season after the debacle of Steven Gerrard.

Over the weekend, Villa saw off relegation-threatened, Nottingham Forest, to move sixth in the Premier League table, with Young starting at right-back.

For the third game in a week, Young started for Villa in place of the injured Matty Cash and he played like he was still in his 20s and still playing under Martin O’Neill.

With only a few weeks of the season remaining, the one-time Premier League winner could argue that he is in with a shout of being Villa’s Player of the Season.

That is some doing and a credit to the player himself, with Warnock singing the praises of his former teammate, as he told The Football Show on Sky Sports (10/04/23).

“I look at my old teammate, Ashley Young,” said Warnock. “37-years-old. He looks great, doesn’t he!? He looks so good. He looks fit. He looks hungry and it looks like he is enjoying playing week in and week out.

“He looks as fit as ever. That is something the manager has to also take credit for.”

FOREVER YOUNG

At the end of the season, Young’s contract will expire at Villa Park and the club have to extend the £50k-a-week star’s (Spotrac) stay by, at least, another 12 months.

There is every chance that Villa return to Europe this season, and if that’s the case, then the club’s squad needs bulking up and a player of Young’s class and experience will be needed.

Either way, it’s crazy to think, over ten years after Young departed the club, they have had a former Birmingham City manager in the dugout, got relegated after nearly three decades, nearly entered into administration, had John Terry captain the club, brought through and sold Jack Grealish for £100 million, re-signed Young and they could now return to play alongside the elite.