Fergie Jr provides Cleverley clue
Posted by nickogs20 on April 1, 2010
Preston North End boss Darren Ferguson has hinted that United loan star Tom Cleverley is set to be handed a first team squad berth at Old Trafford next season.
Out of contract in the summer and coveted by a number of Premier League clubs, 20 year-old Cleverley’s future has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks, with Preston among the most recent batch of clubs linked with the England U21 international. Ferguson Jr has dismissed his club’s chances of landing the midfielder however, as well as the chances of any other interested club, claiming in an interview with the Lancashire Evening Post that his father Sir Alex has Cleverley pencilled in as part of the Reds’ first team plans:
“Tom Cleverley won’t be going out on loan next season, he’ll be at United. He is a big part of their first-team plans.
“Tom is player I know plenty about, I tried to get him when I was at Peterborough. The lad is a good player, he wouldn’t be at United if he wasn’t.
“There is no truth in the fact that he is going to come here, or for that matter, anywhere else. I’m pretty certain of that after speaking to my dad, he’s going back to United. People of his age, players like Danny Welbeck, will go out on loan for a certain period of time and then that’s them.”
A revelation on loan at Watford this season, where his 11 goals so far look set to earn him Player of the Year honours, Cleverley has reportedly attracted interest from the likes of Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle United, either on loan or potentially on a permanent deal. Ferguson Jr’s comments however suggest that a contract extension is likely to be reached in the near future and Sir Alex will resist any overtures from elsewhere in favour of blooding the versatile youngster at the highest level next term.
In addition to his impressive form in the Championship, new rules regarding squad size for Premier League clubs may be a reason for Cleverley being welcomed back into the fold. Much like in the Champions League, from next season top flight clubs will be required to register a squad of 25 from which their matchday squads must be chosen, with the only other players available being those aged – like Cleverley – 21 or under. With the large number of senior pros on the books at a club like United, having someone like Cleverley in the mix gives the manager greater flexibility, perhaps providing the opportunity to register an extra senior player in another position.
fuego said
good news as he’s been really impressive. off topic, but do you know if fabio and diouf are injured? just because they didn’t travel to munich with the squad and were replaced by de laet and macheda, who are behind them in the pecking order, i guess. anyway, i’m happy for cleverley. hope it’s true.
harts83 said
Did stress before that Cleverley was likely to be the major reason why we pulled out the ljajic deal.
If Cleverley is ready to make an impact at united then him not having to be registered would be useful indeed.
Be interesting to see if DeLaet makes the squad because im fairly sure he needs to be in the 25 for him to play next season.
harts83 said
1.VDS
2.Kuzzy
3.Foster
4.Neville
5.Brown
6.Ferdinand
7.Vidic
8.J.Evans
9.O’shea
10.Evra
11.Giggs
12.Scholes
13.Fletcher
14.Carrick
15.Anderson
16.Nani
17.Park
18.Valencia
19.Hargreaves
20.Gibson
21.Rooney
22.Berbatov
23.Owen
24.Diouf
25.Tosic
Players who don’t need to be registered:
Cleverley
Smalling
Rafael
Fabio
Macheda
Welbeck
Obertan
To summerise, We will been to sell to buy next season.
harts83 said
*Need not been. :)
nickogs20 said
Might see one of the backup keepers leave and Amos used as third choice, which would free up a spot. With our financial position it’s a pretty safe bet that there’ll be players leaving as well as coming in anyway.
harts83 said
Yea i’ve said this on the forums. Think it be Foster who gives way though.
Pius4united said
Good news for us. Cleverley is a great talent.
fuego said
we don’t have to register possebon either, i guess. i’ve read it somewhere fergie’ll have 50m to spend in the summer, although it might be a bit overoptimistic… but if we got rodwell it would be nice. we’re linked with quite a few young players if we put off some of our other plans should van der sar, giggsy, scholesy or neville retire at the end of next season, we might not have to sell too many players. i hope it’s not true, but i heard that we had given köln an option on tosic. do you know anything about it?
harts83 said
Possebon doesn’t need to be registered because he was born in 89. Only players born in 88 and before need to be regsitered.
I would of thought Cologne have an option on Tosic. Fergie loaning him to a german team wouldn’t of benefited united if they were to keep him in the long run. We apparently got 400k just for the loan but if he plays well i can see us at least getting our money back.
50m in the summer? If so i think 10m of that has already been spent on Smalling. Rodwell would be great but i don’t think the timing is right. I think we will sign Di Maria from benfica, or at least try too. The lads hot property.
I’m expecting more departures than arrivals this summer though, albeit mostly youngsters like Gray, Brandy and Hewson.
Muss.se » United Review #28 said
[...] till Manchester. Samtidigt antyder Darren Ferguson att Cleverley ingår i Sir Alex planer (United Youth). ¤ Sam Johnstone har skrivit på som proffs i samband med sin 17-årsdag. United.no. ¤ Magnus [...]