Fabian Delph will miss Ashley Young
Friday 24th June 2011, 9:55AM BST.
Fabian Delph is “gutted” to see Ashley Young join Manchester United but understands the winger’s desire to quit Villa.
Young, who had one year left on his contract, signed a five-year deal at Old Trafford for a fee of around £17million and has effectively doubled his salary to £130,000 a week.
And, while Young will be missed, Delph has backed his team-mates to step up to the plate next season.
The 21-year-old said: “I’m gutted to see Ashley go. He’s been a big brother to me.
“Any time I’ve needed to speak to him or when I’ve played, there’s been nothing but encouragement from him and he’s basically been schooling me through everything I’ve done.
“All the boys are sad, he’s a great player and a great guy off the pitch as well. But it happens all the time, it’s football, people come and go and you’ve just got to deal with it and just keep going. It’s up to us to step up to the plate now.
“With his goals and assists it will be very hard to replace him, but if we can get somebody here half as good as him then he would still be a great player.”
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
