Aston Villa: Why Ashley Young is so vital to Villa

Nov 28 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

VILLA captain Stiliyan Petrov has underlined Ashley Young’s importance to Martin O’Neill’s men by branding the former Tottenham target “unique”.

Young was on Harry Redknapp’s summer shopping list but the Spurs boss was warned off when O’Neill declared that the winger was not for sale.

A £30 million-plus price tag was put on the head of the former Watford wideboy who has been compared by O’Neill to Barcelona star Lionel Messi.

And Young moved to end relentless speculation on the eve of the season by pledging his immediate future to club which signed him for almost £10 million.

Tottenham’s loss was Villa’s gain and despite Young’s mixed start to the campaign Petrov is glad that O’Neill was able to hold on to one of his prized assets.

“Ashley is a unique player,” said the skipper.

“He can do everything he wants with the ball. He can go past players and cross the ball.

“You don’t see many players do things like that and he can do that easily and with enjoyment as well.

“He is a massive player for us. He is still young. He has got ambitions. He wants to be the best.

“He wants to perform well in every game.”

Young has endured a difficult first few months of the campaign with opposition teams doubling up on him to try and cut off his supply of crosses.

But the 23-year-old has improved in recent weeks and even earned an England recall and a few minutes’ playing time in the friendly defeat to Brazil.

And Petrov believes the PFA Young Player of the Year’s willingness to work hard and to get even better is a quality which is often overlooked by critics.

“He knows sometimes that it doesn’t happen, but he is still working hard,” he added.

“People say his performances recently haven’t been the best but his work-rate going backwards has been exceptional. Sometimes he sacrifices his game to help the team and that is great to see.

“He is a great player. We know everyone can’t perform at their best all of the time.

“With Ashley, he takes on board what he is doing wrong and he tries to put it right straight away, so we know how good he is and how important he is for us.”