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Ashley Young to Chelsea : Update 1

Friday, 07. 17. 2009 – Category: Aston Villa, Chelsea, Premier League

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Is Ashley Young going to start taking corners on the Kings Road?

We’ve covered this before, but there seems to be some new action, now Villa are willing to come to the party, but they’re demanding a £25 million appearance fee. The fee seems about right, factoring in Young’s inconsistency as a cost reduction and his English heritage as a massive cost increase. Chelsea also have the money, if they can stump up £60 million for Franck Ribery or Fernando Torres, they surely have enough money to afford Ashley Young.

What’s intriguing is Villa’s signing of Stewart Downing, a left sided attacking player. They have different games, Young is all about beating his marker with speed and skill, whereas Downing’s game is all about his sweet left peg. We can assume that if O’Neill is going to lay out a fairly substantial portion of his transfer budget on any player, they’ve not been bought to sit on the bench. Does this mean that Young is on his way out? Downing is a good player, but it would be a massive stretch to say he’s a significant improvement on Young.

If Young does stay, it must be to move into a more central role, as a second striker, or an attacking midfielder. It’s not clear whether Young has the game intelligence to succeed in this position, and it’s no easy ask to play in the centre when you’re used to having the space of the byline. If he does succeed, Villa will have a very tasty attacking lineup this season.