Is Wayne Rooney looking for an ex-teammate to join him at Derby County? Reports suggest The Rams were interested in a loan move for Phil Jones in January.
In December, Rooney said (via Derby Telegraph): “Phil Jones is a Manchester United player and it is not my job to really speak on him.”
The former Manchester United striker currently has young United centre-back Teden Mengi on loan, but Derby are still being linked with the more experienced England international Jones.
The Metro claim the 28-year-old will be available for £10m in the summer after falling down the pecking order at Old Trafford, with Newcastle, Burnley and West Ham all previously showing an interest in the defender.
On top of that, it is clear that Jones is surplus to requirements – and has been for years – with United being linked to every defender in Europe.
The Metro add manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer “remains an admirer” of Jones but “his inability to stay fit means he is surplus to requirements at Old Trafford”.
It would be great if Jones could go and do what Jesse Lingard has done by discovering a new lease of life at a new club. I’m not saying Jones will ever be back in contention to play for England, or even United, but he’s not as bad as everyone on Twitter makes out.
This is a player who has been extremely unlucky with injuries thorough his career and things could have been very different had he played under Sir Alex Ferguson throughout his career.
The appointment of David Moyes was a bad one for players like Jones, who didn’t recieve the right guidance in terms of player development, on top of the fact he was never really part of any manager’s (post-Ferguson) plans.
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