I think I got the gist of what you were saying but different plight still entirely when it comes to both guys. Jones, you'd want to manage carefully in the hope he doesn't injure himself somehow during training or in a game (pretty sure he suffered some kind of a pretty severe injury in a non football related incident) . In Ledley's case, there wasn't any choice in the matter: he simply couldn't do much at all (one game a week or so what really the max). Couldn't (and didn't) train like other players, couldn't do any running. All he did was gym work to keep himself in shape and be ready to play in actual games. That's how bad his knee was that whenever he played, his knee would just swell up for days on end. And he really should have retired long before he actually did (eventhough he was just 31 at the time or something like that). To perform the way he did, under those circumstances, was kind of crazy tbh. It was that bad and that much more tragic considering how good he was: easily could have been a top, top CB but also holding mid. Legitimately one of the best of his time.
Like having a new signing ….. Philip Anthony Jones 🥶 pic.twitter.com/wknb06DJKr— utdreport (@utdreport) August 28, 2021
Nice article with Jones providing context for his long layoff: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...e?shareToken=e2d402ea6ebd16b567d69fce94cd0c7a I realize it is past time for him to move on, and it was silly of the club to resign him like they did. Gotta say though, I do respect his drive to return to the first team after all of the layoffs. It's not easy coming back from injury after injury. Think all the flack he gets from local fans is a bit much. Great servant to the club in those first few years, and that is how I will choose to remember him.
Feel for him with the injuries and the abuse in the street in front of his kids - nobody deserves to have to deal with that. Main take aways from me are why the hell did we re-up a player with such a bad injury record given his meniscus had gone then? Also given he had meniscus injury when we signed him, why have we gone on to sign players with this injury such as Dalot? After Jones, Ole and Hargreaves you would think we would have learned.
Agreed. There are some injuries that have such a high recurrence rate or have a high rate of drop off in ability that's it's not worth the risk. I don't know where meniscus ranks on that list but anyone with cartilage injuries or chronic back issues should be off limits imo.
It said in the article that was the same injury that put Ole out for 3 years and effectively ended his career. But yeah plenty of examples.
Phil Jones addresses his online critics pic.twitter.com/xfYTPww4th— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) September 19, 2021
i didn't think he got a lot of flack. i thought most people forgot he even still played at United. he is right about one thing though. he will be comfortable in retirement especially with all the wages he collected while not playing. he's fortunate he got a new deal despite none of the signs or math indicating that he should have
Thing is calling Jones out on his lack of ability on the pitch is hardly limited to just keyboard warriors. He's not really in the same boat as say Sancho, Rashford and Saka were
exactly. seems a bit rich when a lot of your black teammates have been getting racial abuse and one of them has his own personal mosquito in punditry on his ass weekly to call yourself an easy target. especially when you're essentially stealing wages. not to say the bad situation of others negates his situation but not the smartest thing to say assuming he has not been misquoted.
Jones may not be at the top, top level but it's disingenuous to class him as a bum also. There was a time where he was pretty decent and easily was an England international (and a solid one at that). He was a decent player way back when and as frustrating as it was for us to see him tumble down so hard, it's really injuries (the fact that they were constant and a lot of them long term) that have completely derailed his career. As far as him still being at United collecting a fat check every week or 2, again that may be a source of frustration for most fans (understandably so) but bottom line, the club is really responsible for that situation. When he was offered his extension, it was very clear he was on the decline: that was a ridiculous move from the club. Pretty confident that a small minority of people in his shoes would have just turned down a contract like that. Woodward and co are the ones who created this mess: no contract offer and Jones would have long gone by now...
He’s always been shit. Prone to mistakes and a stupid player. No real athletic talent either. He showed promise with his tenacity and physicality early in his career. That’s it.