Ashley Young gives insight on Antonio Conte to Man Utd speculation and offers ‘disaster’ warning

Ashley Young has offered his insight on Antonio Conte being linked to Manchester United and expressed his reservations.

During his spell as Manchester United player between 2011 and 2020, Ashley Young experienced the highs and lows of the end of the Sir Alex Ferguson era, and the shambles which followed.

Young made his exit during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first full season at United, signing for Inter Milan under Antonio Conte.

In 2020/21, Conte’s Inter Milan won the Serie A title, with a heavy former United influence. Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Matteo Darmian and Ashley Young were all involved.

Fast-forward to present day, Antonio Conte is being linked with the Manchester United job, with current manager Michael Carrick under pressure after a poor start to the season. United have only seven points from seven Premier League games.

Ashley Young spoke on The Overlap to offer his insight, and suggested Conte himself is behind the links.

Presenter Kelly Cates asked: “Antonio Conte, I don’t know whether he is being linked or is linking himself?”

Young responded: “I’d go with the second one. I think linking himself to the job saying that big clubs, he wants to get the history back and and whatnot.”

Young explains what it was like to work under Conte

Ashley Young won the last major title of his career under Antonio Conte, but recalls how some of the manager’s methods stood out in his memory.

He explained: “I’ve worked underneath him and Milan. He’s crazy, by the way. Like he is crazy.

“He’s a bit like Diego Simeone on the sidelines. Like you hear him non-stop.”

Inter Milan won far more games than they lost, but Young recalls how Conte’s long inquests into defeats became an obsession.

“Meetings were long. When I say long, I’m talking, if we lost the game, we could go in and do the meeting after the game and it stops literally everything and you could be there for three, four hours.”

Young has doubts over Conte at United

Young has reservations over whether Antonio Conte would be the right fit for Manchester United. He is notorious for not lasting long at clubs. He left Inter Milan in 2021 after winning the title.

Conte also quit Napoli 12 months after winning the title for the club in 2024/25. Young believes his intense methods are a factor.

“I think that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t last long at places because not just the players, he tries to test mentally, but the board as well and the owners.”

Not only does this sound like a bad fit for United, Young cited the players’ poor running statistics as an element that could add fuel to the fire.

“There has been a lot of talk has been about Man United’s running stats. If they’re not going to run and Antonio Conte goes in there, it’s going to be a disaster.”

Michael Carrick remains in post as Manchester United manager. But this could change if the club suffer a defeat at home to Bournemouth this weekend, with the fixtures only set to get tougher. Whether the club are brave or perhaps foolish enough to appoint Conte as a replacement, remains to be seen.