AUTHOR: – Doron
Man United travel to America on Monday to start their pre-season tour. New signing, Ashley Young will be part of the initial 21 man squad and will wear the number 18 shirt next season. Six other players will be joining the squad later but there are some notable absentees.
United play their first game of the pre-season tour against New England Revolution on Wednesday and fly out on Monday. The tour squad has been announced with 21 players in the travelling party:
Goalkeepers: Ben Amos, Sam Johnstone, Anders Lindegaard
Defenders: Rafael, Fabio, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Jonny Evans
Midfielders: Michael Carrick, Anderson, Ryan Giggs, Ji-sung Park, Gabriel Obertan, Nani, Ashley Young
Forwards: Mame Biram Diouf, Kiko Macheda, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov
There will be six players joining the tour later having had an extended summer break due to international commitments. They are: Chris Smalling, Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, Chicharito and new signings David de Gea and Phil Jones.
The club have confirmed the squad numbers that the trio of new signings will wear next season: De Gea – 1; Jones – 4; and Young – 18.
There is a great chance for young talented goalkeeper Sam Johnstone to get some first team action having already been in first team squads before; whilst Amos and Lindegaard will stake their claims before De Gea joins up. Defensively the initial squad is a bit thin so there may be plenty of entertaining attacking football on show.
There are some notable absentees however. Darren Fletcher doesn’t travel, no reason has been offered as to why. Darron Gibson and Tomasz Kuszczak are also not on the squad list and both are expected to leave the club this summer.
AUTHOR: – Doron