Luke before you leap

By Mat Kendrick on Jul 28, 10 12:41 AM

THE fact that Luke Young is, in Martin O'Neill's words, 'mulling over' a move to Liverpool, proves how much Villa's surplus-to- requirements right-back wants to play football.

Mulling over?

For most thirty-something footballers a transfer to Anfield, even an Anfield down on its luck and a pale imitation of its former self, would represent the stuff of dreams.

Especially for a player who despite his best efforts has been forced to take the almighty hint that he is no longer wanted at Villa Park - at least not by the manager.

But, as O'Neill revealed following last night's friendly at Walsall - another pre-season practice match where Young was conspicuous by his absence - the defender is taking his time thinking through a potential move to Roy Hodgson's Reds.

What is there to think through? Villa don't want him, so why isn't he jumping at the chance of kick-starting his career at another club with serious top four aspirations and such glorious history?

To ask that question is to ignore what makes Luke Young tick. This is a player remember, who forfeited the chance to go to the World Cup with England by rejecting Fabio Capello's request for him to join a Three Lions squad last November.

Make no mistake, Luke is a single-minded, determined individual, who makes his own decisions.

He turned down his country because he was fed up of travelling on international duty, only to either warm the bench, or sit suited and booted in the stands.

He turned down his country because he wanted to play football - and unless he was playing he wasn't happy.

A similar scenario has emerged at Villa where the former Charlton, Spurs and Middlesbrough full-back has simply got fed up of being left out of the team.

Some Premier League prima donnas would happily sit on their backsides and pick up their lucrative pay-cheques - mentioning no names, Habib.

But Young is different. Despite being healthily remunerated on a FIVE-YEAR contract which still has three years to run, Young would feel a fraud simply withdrawing his wages each month without actually earning them.

He wants to play football.

Which brings us to his potential ÃÂ£2.5 million move to Liverpool. Villa have accepted the offer from the Merseyside giants, less than half of what they paid Boro two years ago, which confirms O'Neill's willingness to bid farewell to a player he has never truly seen eye to eye with.

By the time Villa jet off to Portugal this afternoon, Young's mind could be made up and he could be being paraded in front of the Kop with a liver bird scarf draped round his neck.

That, at the time of writing, he is still to commit to the transfer is surely because he wants to play football. Why go to Anfield if he is going to be stuck behind Glenn Johnson and Jamie Carragher (rather than Carlos Cuellar) in the queue for the right-back role?

Young has turned down England because he didn't want to be a spare part, he has fallen out of love with Villa because he doesn't want to be a spare part and he won't move to Liverpool unless he gets assurances that he won't be a spare part.

As much as it will hurt the claret and blue brigade to see him pull on the red of the Scousers, let's hope Luke gets those assurances, because he certainly deserves to finish his career doing what he does best - playing football.