By the end of the summer of 2022, the English player has spent a total of £51.8 million on the red half of Manchester (£16 million in transfer fees and £35.8 million in salary – PV). This is quite a lot of money given that Jones hasn’t had any real impact on the pitch for the past 10 years.
In the last 4 seasons, Jones only played 13 matches. The last time the England international played for MU was in May 2022. Before that, the 30-year-old player had a time of tormenting injuries. But he is still among the highest earning players at Old Trafford, at £175,000 a week.
Before Ralf Rangnick took the interim role and gave Jones a chance at the end of last season, the former Blackburn midfielder did not play for the MU first team for 707 days, since the period when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was new to replace Jose Mourinho.
Jones suffered a total of 14 serious injuries in a decade of wearing the “Red Devils” shirt. For the past two years, he has struggled with a knee injury. MU’s central defender also has psychological problems when he has to stop playing for a long time.
Sir Alex Ferguson once appreciated Jones very much. In the final match of the 2010/11 season, feeling very impressed with Jones when he and Blackburn held MU 1-1, the Scottish legend asked the “Red Devils” BLD to recruit this central defender for £ 16 million.
“At the age of 21, Jones is on his way to becoming a phenomenon. He can become a great player of MU,” said Sir Alex when MU recruited Jones. He even compared Jones to legendary defender Duncan Edwards in the club’s history.
However, the instability of MU post-Sir Alex and injuries caused Jones’ career to turn in another direction. Every day, Jones receives countless messages advising him to retire or “get out” from Old Trafford.
Jones has scored just six goals for United in nearly 12 years at the club, which equates to a cost of £8.6m per goal when taking into account transfer fees and accrued wages.
“I cannot confirm whether Jones can return to play this season,” coach Ten Hag said on January 28. In the context of the contract expiring in June 2023, Jones was not offered by MU to sign a new one. This season, the “Red Devils” eliminated Jones from the list of Premier League and Europa League attendance. Jones had to use the dressing room of the U21 team to make room for MU rookies.
Xiaofeng | 15:48 February 21, 2023
