It has been ten years since Sir Alex Ferguson predicted that Phil Jones, who had just lifted his first Premier League title, would go on to be Manchester United’s greatest-ever player.
Needless to say, as Jones bids farewell to Old Trafford a decade later with no more titles to his name and his career ruined by injuries, Ferguson got that one wrong.
The legendary manager was not the only one to tip the versatile defender for greatness. Sir Bobby Charlton compared Jones to his old team-mate Duncan Edwards, the star of the great team known as the Busby Babes who was tragically killed in the Munich Air Disaster.
Fabio Capello likened him to Franco Baresi, and Gareth Southgate remarked early into his stint as England manager that Jones was the best defender in the country.
The fact that four great figures of the game believed so much in Jones makes the way his career has turned out even sadder. As well as the injuries, and there have been many of them, Jones has turned into a figure of ridicule. His contorted face has become the subject of endless memes, his name the punchline in so many jokes. But he deserves much better than that...
