Jones to be the first as Fergie starts to build again

A move to Manchester United is a dream for most English players and it looks as though Blackburn’s nineteen year old centre-back Phil Jones is going to fulfil that dream. Having apparently turned down approaches from Arsenal and Liverpool it looks as though he is on his way to Old Trafford.

Midfield

Jones is primarily a centre-back but has been used in midfield by Blackburn as well. It could be that versatility together with his obvious ability that is what attracted him to the big clubs.

It certainly won’t be easy for Jones to make his way into the first team at Old Trafford as the pairing of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand don’t seem to be going anywhere. Ferdinand is thirty-two now and somewhat injury prone, but he still managed to play twenty-seven games this season. Vidic is twenty-nine and has had hisn problems as well, but he made forty-seven appearances this season and looked as good as ever.

Behind

Behind those two are Jonny Evans, who seems to be slipping down the pecking order, and Chris Smalling, who is just twenty-one and appeared thirty-three times during the campaign.

Vidic and Ferdinand may have one more season in them but Sir Alex Ferguson is rightly famous for rebuilding his side time after time and in twelve months time a central defensive partnership of Chris Smalling and Phil Jones might just be a decent basis for the team to achieve even more success.

Career

Jones has played just thirty-four league games in his short career so far but has impressed all who have seen him. He played for England under nineteens and has ten caps for the under twenty-ones with whom he will be travelling to Denmark later for the European Championships. In fact, we might get an early glimpse of what a Jones/Smalling partnership might look like in that tournament.

Fergie has never let Manchester United stand still and the humiliating defeat by Barcelona will have left it’s mark and told him that he needs to start to rebuild. Jones is just the first step on that path.