\n The 40-year-old former Manchester United and Inter Milan star joined the Blues on a free transfer from Everton yesterday.\n<\/p>\n
\n He wasn’t part of the squad that travelled to Scotland for a 3-1 friendly win at Aberdeen tonight but is set to be involved in Tuesday night’s game against Charlton, at Colchester.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 39-cap England international has been a versatile player throughout his career, playing as a winger and full-back on both sides.\n<\/p>\n
\n Asked what role he had in mind for him, McKenna replied: “Ashley can play lots of different roles, but\u00a0I think his most common role last season (at Everton) and what it will probably be this season is right-back.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But he’s a really versatile, intelligent player who’s played in almost every role on the pitch.”\n<\/p>\n
\n That will leave Young competing with Ben Johnson and Harry Clarke for a starting spot.\n<\/p>\n
\n Asked there was a coaching pathway for Young, McKenna replied: “He’s not interested in that at the moment. Maybe we can suck him in by the end of the year because we’ve managed to convert a few!\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “But, for now,\u00a0his big focus is on playing and helping the team achieve the goals this year. That’s where we need him.”\n<\/p>\n
\n On why he brought Young to the club. McKenna added: “I think he’s one that can bring us different things on\u00a0different levels.\n<\/p>\n
\n “He’s got incredible experience, winning\u00a0titles in different countries and having an incredible Premier League career.\n<\/p>\n
\n “You don’t have that longevity without some pretty special qualities, which I think for him is his competitiveness and his edge that he has. He’ll bring that to the group and he’s still playing well.\n<\/p>\n
\n “He played well last year for Everton. Played well against us. Played well in all the Premier League games he was involved in last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n “So\u00a0he can certainly still have a big part to play in the team. And I think around the building it’s clear we’ve lost an awful lot of experience from the group this year. That’s clear.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 40-year-old former Manchester United and Inter Milan star joined the Blues on a free transfer from Everton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-292268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114917423640593012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}