As players we didn’t want the Super League plain and simple, proclaims Ashley Young
Ashley Young has expressed his resentment towards the creation of the Super League and how it influences the wider aspects of the game. This comes in lieu of the negative response that the creation of the breakaway league caused with 12 of Europe’s biggest sides playing a part including Inter Milan.
Ashley Young, a former Manchester United player, admitted that he was unhappy at the creation of a breakaway Super League, as it did not take into consideration views of the players or their welfare. The first cracks in the proposal arrived when news broke of Chelsea’s intention to leave the competition with it all falling apart after that.Â
Immediately what followed was a domino effect with the likes Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and co pulling the plug. Expressing severe condemnation at the rich owners for running football clubs like business ventures, Ashley Young has called out to his teammates to focus on things under their control. Continuing the hard work on and off the pitch has been the battle cry for him and most of his teammates as Inter Milan successfully lifted the Scudetto for the first time in 10 years.
"We didn't want it as players and that's it - plain and simple. For me, it was a non-starter. For us as players it was just about concentrating on the games we had coming up. We needed to carry on winning games, we had a league to win. Whatever was happening with the owners, whoever it was, we let them deal with it, we just concentrated on what went on on the pitch," Young said, reported Sky Sports.
Young reflected his extreme happiness at toppling the dominance of Juventus, as Inter successfully ending their nine-year dominance and simultaneously clinching their first top-flight title in 11 years. Becoming the first Englishman to win both the Premier League and Serie A, Young further added his disbelief at achieving success and still going strong despite being 35.
"That sounds unbelievable to be honest.It's obviously nice to win the Premier League and then to go to a new league and win that as well is just incredible, an unbelievable feeling. It's never easy to leave a club in January, but I'm looking back now and I think I made the right decision. I always wanted to go out and win. I've got that ambition, drive and desire to win.
"Obviously the first season we got to the Europa League final which unfortunately we lost. We also lost the league by one point and I think that might have spurred us on for this season to go out and get ourselves a trophy and win Serie A.Going out there and making that decision, I think it was the best one I made," he added.